When Ohio legislators passed the historically corrupt House Bill 6 (HB6) in 2019, they forced all Ohioans to pay more on their electric bills to bail out the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation’s (OVEC) two dirty, inefficient, and outdated coal plants in Ohio and Indiana for the next decade. These plants are major contributors to air pollution in and around Ohio, and are major emitters of greenhouse gases that exacerbate the climate crisis. Ohioans shouldn’t be forced to pay extra to make their own air quality worse, especially during a global respiratory pandemic!

Now Ohio legislators have the opportunity to do the right thing and pass Senate Bill 117 (SB117), a piece of legislation that would repeal the financially burdensome and environmentally foolish bailout of the OVEC plants in its entirety. This bipartisan legislation would protect Ohioans and hold the OVEC owners responsible for their own bad financial decisions.

Before the passage of HB6, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) had approved bailouts for AEP, Duke, and Dayton Power & Light’s shares of the OVEC coal plants through the mid-2020s, with an argument that the plants could be profitable if power prices were to increase significantly. Instead, the plants have lost money every single year and been a financial drain and environmental burden on Ohioans. HB6 extended and expanded the bad decision from the PUCO and made it even harder to protect Ohio electricity customers from the OVEC bailout.

Recently, legislators repealed the nuclear bailout that was part of House Bill 6 but left in place the OVEC coal plants bailout with claims it was an issue that needed to be debated further. But there’s nothing further to discuss, Ohioans shouldn’t be bailing out coal plants and SB 117 will ensure Ohioans are no longer footing the bill for dirty coal.

Take a moment to make your voice heard and tell your senator to take action and support SB117.

Ohioans deserve clean air to breathe and certainly shouldn’t have to pay higher electric bills to keep polluting plants online! By taking action you can help push Ohio legislators to correct this horrific unjust legislation.