Ohio’s big power companies saw the height of their Statehouse influence in 2019 via House Bill 6, the now notorious energy law that ended up being the center of a federal corruption investigation.
A new energy bill that’s nearing passage in the Ohio legislature shows how much their influence has waned. The bill could result in fewer subsidies for power companies and lessen their ability to tack on fees to customer bills.
The Ohio House on Wednesday in a 90-3 vote approved House Bill 15, which is meant to change Ohio’s energy regulations to encourage investors to build new power plants. The bill is lawmakers’ response to expected high future electricity demand driven by the construction of new data centers, factories and other high-tech business projects.
The bill is a companion to Senate Bill 2, which unanimously cleared the Ohio Senate last week. The two bills are very similar, but not identical, which means the two Republican-controlled chambers now will have to negotiate a final version for them to take effect.
Both bills undo some big benefits for Ohio’s four big, regulated electricity companies: American Electric Power, Duke, FirstEnergy and AES Ohio. Some of these benefits got put into place via HB6, while others had a starring role in the subsequent federal investigation.
Provisions in the bills include:
- Eliminating a process that has allowed power companies to charge customers more money – by tacking on fees to electricity bills – without first going through a comprehensive state review through which regulators could force them to cut their electricity prices. The fees are supposed to pay for the utilities to fund one-off capital projects. However, when when it comes to FirstEnergy, as the HB6 investigation revealed, it’s not clear whether or not that actually happened.
- Eliminating a subsidy to two coal plants, one in Galia County and one in Indiana, owned by a group of power companies called the Ohio Valley Electric Company. The OVEC subsidy was part of House Bill 6, and has remained on the books even as lawmakers repealed other parts of the bill. Ohio electricity customers have paid $679 million on the subsidy since 2019, according to The Plain Dealer.
- The bill forbids the big utilities – again, FirstEnergy, American Electric Power, Duke Energy and AES Ohio – from building new power plants, something FirstEnergy in particular has expressed interest in. (The bill is intended to encourage new companies that don’t enjoy a regulated state monopoly to produce power.)
In short, if HB6 was a gift bag for regulated utilities, the new bills take back the gifts as well as the nice bag they came in.
Why is the party over now?
Statehouse veterans have different thoughts. Some said HB6 hurt utilities’ credibility, even those that weren’t implicated in the investigation. Others said lawmakers needed time to absorb the shock of the investigation, which sent Larry Householder, a formerly powerful Ohio House speaker, to federal prison.
“I think after House Bill 6, people were trying to understand the lay of the land and where the state should go,” said state Sen. Mark Romanchuk, an Ontario Republican who’s long criticized Ohio as overly friendly to big utility companies. “And in the last year or so, it seems like there was an epiphany in the two chambers.”
The legislature also has seen widespread turnover in its ranks over the years, with new generations of lawmakers less persuaded by utilities’ arguments that changing regulations is bad for business. One of Wednesday’s “no” votes in the House was Rep. Jason Stephens, a Lawrence County Republican who was House speaker until he lost his position in January. In his speech on the House floor, Stephens argued in favor of keeping the OVEC subsidy, which benefits a plant in his area of the state.
“It’s always about who’s making the decisions, who’s in the seats to vote,” said House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican who replaced Stephens and green-lit Wednesday’s vote.
But in public debates, some lawmakers also said they can’t justify charging customers to pay for corporate subsidies that they might not even benefit from.
“This is $1.50 cent per month to tax on almost every single Ohio energy test that we have in our state to support handful of coal plants,” said State Rep. Brian Stewart, an Ashville Republican.
Todd Snitchler, a former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman who now runs a trade group representing independent electricity producers, said he also thinks Ohio’s regulated utility companies aren’t as much on the same page as they used to be. This gives an opening for opposing groups, like the one Snitchler represents, to make their arguments.
In summation, there are a lot of reasons for the political change, Snitchler said, with the “HB6 hangover” among them.
“People would like to get it behind them,” Snitchler said, “and if you can remedy the last vestiges of that piece of legislation and start with a clean slate, I think that’s something people want to do.”
In a statement, FirstEnergy spokesperson Hannah Catlett said the state requires a “thoughtful transition to a new regulatory framework” to meet future energy demands while keeping electricity reliable and affordable. The company opposes the new energy bills and its president, Torence Hinton, testified against them.
“As the legislation moves forward, FirstEnergy will continue to work with industry peers and regulators to advocate for sound energy policy that is critical to address the state’s energy future while balancing cost and reliability for customers,” Catlett said.
Sherrod’s second act
Sherrod Brown, the former longtime Democratic senator who lost his reelection bid in November, announced his next political act this week. But it still may not be his final one.
Brown announced on Monday the launch of The Dignity of Work Institute, a think-tank named after a Martin Luther King Jr. quote that Brown has made one of his core political mantras. Brown said the new group will produce research meant to illuminate challenges faced by working people and recommend how politicians can address those challenges.
The focus dovetails with themes of Brown’s unsuccessful Senate campaign and his subsequent writings that have criticized the Democratic Party for losing touch with working-class voters. The group’s initial work is a poll that describes many Americans as having worked multiple jobs at one time, and a big majority backing “major” or “significant” changes to the economy.
“We need to make workers the winners in our economy,” Brown said during a virtual availability with Ohio reporters. “That’s what this Institute’s all about. It’s what my mission will be in the weeks and months and years ahead.”
Brown was once again noncommittal about his plans for the 2026 election, saying he isn’t sure what he’ll do.
But his new initiative sure looks like a campaign in waiting, if Brown decided to go in that direction. A launch video that heavily features Brown even makes generous use of B-roll from his 2024 campaign commercials.
Team Sherrod veterans fill the ranks
The Dignity of Work Institute’s advisory board also leans heavily on Brown’s political career. Among the several former staffers from Brown’s Senate office now working on the new initiative include Sarah Benzing, who was Brown’s former chief of staff. John Ryan, a former Cleveland labor leader who’s long been one of Brown’s top political advisers, is on its advisory board.
Another person initially listed among the group’s advisers didn’t last long. Cleveland Cliffs President and CEO Laurenco Gonclaves initially appeared on the group’s website when it launched Monday morning. But he was removed by Monday afternoon.
Gonclaves’ inclusion was eyebrow raising. He recently appeared at Cleveland-area political events for a Republican political foe – U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, who beat Brown in November. The executive has also recently campaigned alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican running for governor who could potentially face Brown or another Democrat in next year’s 2026 general election.
Company officials didn’t respond to messages asking about the change. A Dignity of Work Institute official described the group’s board as a work in progress that may change as Brown gets it off the ground.
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Note: An earlier version of this article misdescribed a vote taken by state Rep. Latyna Humphrey. The article has been corrected.