Energy

A two-part documentary, The Dark Money Game, will premiere on HBO on April 15 at 9:00 p.m., covering the House Bill 6 scandal and the role of dark money in politics.

The portion focusing on House Bill 6, titled Ohio Confidential, will feature retired FBI agents along with former U.S. Attorney David DeVillers and others involved in the uncovering of the bribery scheme that resulted in former Speaker Larry Householder being sent to prison for 20 years. 4/8/2025

Microsoft has confirmed that it will no longer move forward with its immediate plans to build data centers in Licking County. It had previously planned to invest $1 billion toward three data center campuses in New Albany, Heath, and Hebron. Microsoft will continue to own the land and plans to ensure that two of the three sites can be used for farming. Additionally, Microsoft will carry out development agreements to fund roadway and utility project upgrades.

Microsoft’s decision to pull out of these projects comes amid a controversial proposed data center tariff from AEP Ohio that is pending at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. OMA Energy Group has intervened to oppose this discriminatory tariff as it is discriminatory and anti-competitive. 4/8/2025

While the House and Senate continue to negotiate provisions of House Bill 15 and Senate Bill 2 behind the scenes, the Senate held a hearing on House Bill 15 this week. Both bills promote competitive generation in Ohio and repeal costly subsidies on customers’ electricity bills.

The OMA testified in favor of HB 15 to express support for immediate repeal of costly subsidies currently paid to two unneeded and uneconomic coal plants, in addition to provisions added to require transparency and accountability from electric utilities. It is expected that Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 15 will be reconciled soon, and one of the bills will be passed by the end of April. Manufacturers are encouraged to continue urging their legislators to vote yes. 3/4/2025

Deliberations have begun on reconciling differences between the House and Senate energy priority bills, House Bill 15 and Senate Bill 2. These pro-customer bills both propose to enact significant energy policy reform favoring customers over utilities by including repeal of costly subsidies that manufacturers are currently forced to pay and putting an end to unneeded riders on electricity bills.

While the final details of the legislation are being ironed out, manufacturers are encouraged to take action and urge legislators to vote yes. It is anticipated that the final bill will be sent to the Governor’s desk by the end of April. 4/2/2025

The House Finance Committee unveiled their version of the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 operating budget in substitute House Bill 96. The original proposed budget from Governor DeWine had contained language allowing electric distribution utilities (EDUs) to gain a foothold in the competitive generation market by constructing behind-the-meter renewable generation for mercantile customers. Under the Governor’s proposal, this would have been expanded to allow EDUs to construct a “green energy resource,” recently redefined to include natural gas and nuclear generation. While this would have been chilling to the competitive marketplace and driven up costs to customers, the House removed the language this week.

Another energy policy change made by the House Finance Committee to the budget this week is the addition of language to allow EDUs to own electric vehicle charging stations in areas of last resort and to construct “make ready” infrastructure, which could allow utilities to socialize a greater percentage of the electrical line extension work needed, resulting in increased costs on customers’ electric bills. The OMA testified to express concern with the newly added language. 4/2/2025

Last year, FirstEnergy asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to increase customers’ bases rates, seeking a $183 million revenue increase. State auditors hired by the PUCO, however, concluded this week that an $8.5 million increase would be more appropriate, a significant decrease from FirstEnergy’s original request. OMA Energy Group has intervened in the rate case to oppose the increase.

Hearing at the PUCO will begin on May 5. The case will also receive three public hearings to gather consumer testimony on the request, the first of which was held on Thursday in Cleveland. This is the first comprehensive review of FirstEnergy’s electric rates since 2007. 4/2/2025

The Ohio House on Wednesday passed House Bill 15, landmark electricity reform to repeal costly riders on customers’ power bills, in sweeping fashion.

Among items debated by lawmakers was the continuation of customer-paid subsidies for two unneeded and uneconomical coal power plants. The power plant subsidies, which only benefited utilities, were authorized by the infamous House Bill 6 scandal that resulted in the criminal prosecution and incarceration of a former Ohio Speaker of the House. Remarkably, one group suggested lawmakers continue the utility giveaway. Lawmakers were undeterred, approving the bill 90-3.

The OMA applauded the passage in a statement, thanking the legislature for their leadership and staying strong to protect competitive generation.

The House and Senate companion bills will need to be reconciled in the coming weeks. Manufacturers are encouraged to take action by contacting their legislators and urging them to defend competitive generation and protect customers. 3/26/2025

After weeks of deliberation, the Ohio Senate on Wednesday passed Senate Bill 2, landmark energy legislation that would repeal costly ESPs and end subsidies to failing coal power plants.

The OMA applauded the passage in a statement, highlighting the bill as a “critical step forward in transparency and protection of competitive electricity generation.”

Senate Bill 2 now heads to the Ohio House, where it will begin working its way through the House Energy Committee. OMA staff will continue to update members on its status.

OMA members took action this week to support the bill, making direct contact with their senators to advocate for passage of the bill.

Over in the House, work continues on their version of the priority energy legislation, House Bill 15. The OMA testified in support of House Bill 15 and the additional OMA-requested language added to the bill to protect customers. While the bill contains many pro-manufacturing reforms, the OMA urged the committee to ensure that customers who are participating in transmission programs are protected from unexpected changes to their energy bills.

House Bill 15 is anticipated to be scheduled for a vote next week. 3/19/2025

This week, the OMA held its first Energy Committee of the year, featuring updates on both landmark House and Senate energy bills, ongoing cases at the PUCO, and presentations on Ohio’s energy policy.

The OMA Energy Committee was joined virtually by State Rep. Adam Holmes, Chair of the House Energy Committee, who updated members on House Bill 15, a priority OMA energy bill that would eliminate the costly Electric Security Plans (ESPs), end coal power plant subsidies under the corrupt House Bill 6, and ensure critical support for new generation. 3/13/2025

Hearings continued this week on House Bill 15, the Ohio House version of landmark energy legislation that would, among other provisions, eliminate the costly Electric Security Plans (ESPs), end coal power plant subsidies under the corrupt House Bill 6, and ensure critical support for new generation.

The House Energy Committee made several amendments to the bill, including requiring utilities to publish heat maps of Ohio’s electrical grid, a step toward accountability and transparency that attracts business investment.

As with any complicated piece of legislation, refinement is frequently needed to keep things moving in the right direction and prevent unwelcome, last-minute amendments from eroding the original, positive intent. OMA members and our energy experts have been working with lawmakers to do just that.

But the staff at the OMA cannot do this alone. Manufacturers are among the most important businesses in the state and can make a difference when they choose to engage. You have the opportunity to shape the outcome of this public policy debate by adding your voice. Click the button below to take action and call your state lawmakers to urge support for these repeals and further changes. 3/12/2025

After several positive hearings on the Ohio Senate’s landmark energy bill, a substitute bill introduced on Tuesday made several sweeping pro-utility changes that were harmful enough for OMA to withdraw its support of the bill.

Chief among them is the ability for Ohio’s largest utilities to provide so-called “behind the meter” power generation services, a move that takes a step backwards from competitive markets and deregulation in Ohio. The sub bill also made numerous changes to the ratemaking process, including allowing utilities to annually increase rates in a forecasted test period, resulting in the elimination of rate stability and certainty for customers.

The OMA’s energy counsel, Kim Bojko, denounced the changes, highlighting that they will make it difficult for energy-intensive users, like manufacturers, to locate or expand in Ohio due to uncertainty in rates and energy costs. 3/4/2025

This week, several of Ohio’s public utility companies testified in opposition of Senate Bill 2, the Senate’s highly anticipated energy reform bill. The utilities defended electric security plans (ESP’s), citing that their elimination would derail the state’s economic projects.

The OMA, along with members of the Ohio Senate, pushed back against these claims, with Senate Energy Chair Brian Chavez asking utilities how their proposals for keeping ESPs would would be more transparent than the approach established in SB 2.

In a statement, the OMA’s Managing Director of Advocacy and Energy Services, Lindsey Short, called out ESPs as an out-of-date option that increases the cost of electricity across Ohio.

“Contrary to today’s statements of three electric companies to the Ohio Senate Energy Committee, Ohio manufacturers know that Electric Security Plans (ESPs) lead to high prices for Ohio consumers, both residential and commercial.” 2/25/2025

This week, Tim Ling, corporate environmental director for Plaskolite, LLC, testified on behalf of the OMA to the Senate Energy Committee on their priority energy legislation, Senate Bill 2. Ling expressed support for many of the bill’s provisions, including the elimination of above-market charges paid through Electric Security Plans on customers’ bills. He pointed out that utilities often use misleading names for the riders that can be billed for almost anything, joking that a utility could name a “For the Children” rider while never intending to deliver any money to children at all.

Ling also noted that while the bill has many positive provisions, some improvements should be made. OVEC and unused solar subsidies should be refunded back to customers, and the language around mini rate cases should be more clearly defined and include transmission programs that provide economic development tools to manufacturers. 2/18/2025

The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Ken Parker, has been fired from his position by the Trump administration, clearing the way for President Trump to appoint a new U.S. attorney. Under his tenure as U.S. attorney, Parker and his team secured convictions against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder for his role in the House Bill 6 bribery scheme.

U.S. attorneys are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and often move on when a change in administrations occurs. 2/19/2025

A study released this week details the economic benefit that data centers bring to Ohio, and throughout the U.S. The study demonstrated that data centers directly employ 15,000 Ohioans, and that centers support 6.5 jobs for each job directly employed. Also highlighted in the study were the taxes paid by the industry in Ohio, which accounted for $931 million in assorted taxes in 2023.

The OMA has joined forces with data centers in expressing concerns over a proposed electricity rate proposal that would penalize data centers with disproportionate user costs. 2/19/2025

This week, the OMA provided testimony in support of House Bill 15 to the House Energy Committee. The OMA applauded the bill sponsor for including repeal of anti-competitive, costly provisions embedded in current law that customers must pay through electric security plans, as well as repeal of the subsidies paid by customers to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to two coal plants owned by Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC).

In testimony, as well as in a statement, the OMA also emphasized that more can be done to help increase the benefits of competition. More transparency on the true costs and effectiveness of utilities’ transmission system improvements is needed, as well as the creation of “heat maps” to show where Ohio’s transmission grid network is over or underused, allowing businesses to expand where there is surplus capacity.

Along with the OMA, the committee received testimony from over 20 proponents of the bill at the hearing. 2/12/2025

This week, the House Energy Committee began its review of House Bill 15, an energy reform package designed to encourage generation in Ohio. Among the bill’s many provisions, it eliminates electric security plans (ESPs), a mechanism used by electric utilities to increase profits through numerous above-market charges added to customers’ bills. Instead, the bill requires an electric utility’s standard service offer to be established only as a market-rate offer.

The bill also clarifies that electric utilities cannot own or operate generation, and repeals the subsidy that requires Ohioans to pay for two uneconomic coal-fired power plants.

The Senate has not yet unveiled its energy legislation, Senate Bill 2. 2/5/2025

Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder’s attorneys made their arguments to a three-judge appeals court panel this week in an attempt to overturn his racketeering conviction. Householder’s attorney argued that his actions in the passage of House Bill 6 were “regular politics” and that jurors were given faulty instructions that led them to believe political contributions for an energy bill supported by Householder were a federal crime.

Householder’s attorney also noted that he will not be seeking clemency from Trump, an option that he had previously considered after Trump’s re-election. 2/3/2025

Last week, the PUCO Nominating Council interviewed several candidates to fill a vacancy on one of Ohio’s most powerful regulatory boards.

The Council voted to recommend two candidates for Commissioner to the Governor; the incumbent Lawrence Friedeman, who has held the seat since 2017, and former Greater Cleveland Partnership CEO Joe Roman.

The Governor has 30 days to appoint a Commissioner from the list or reject the list. 2/5/2025

Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek’s claims of fractional energy needs as compared to American rivals doused cold water on calls for major electricity investments.

The market correction followed a prescient op-ed from the President of the Electric Power Supply Association, warning of irrational exuberance of utility load forecasts, a concern also raised by OMA’s energy experts. With hundreds of billions of dollars of investment at risk, and national security implications, experts are digging in to the poorly understood matter and some just aren’t sure what to think.

Asked for its thoughts, AI standard bearer ChatGPT stated, “Future AI energy needs will likely grow but at a more measured pace than early predictions suggested, driven by efficiency gains, specialized hardware, and smarter resource management.” 2/3/2025