FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones recently appeared before the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee in support of a bill to create zero-emission credits for his company’s nuclear power plants, Gongwer Ohio reports. House Bill 178 and its Senate companion, Senate Bill 128 (see our April 19, 2017 blog post) “would establish the Zero Emission Nuclear [ZEN] Resource Program, which would create the credits to be priced by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and purchased by distribution utilities with nuclear plants.” Jones said the ZEN program would “shore up struggling plants, thereby saving thousands of direct and indirect Ohio jobs,” according to Gongwer. Bill opponent American Petroleum Institute Ohio issued a statement arguing that “the bill would tip the scales away from more competitive natural gas plants.” Jones said he does not view the program as a subsidy but as the state deciding whether to pay the plants for the economic and environmental benefits they bring.
Are Ohio’s zero-emission credit bills a bailout?
