Hypocritical Ohio law links nuke support to coal subsidies, cuts off renewables

Enlarge / One of Ohio's nuclear power plants. (credit: Ohio State Senate)

The incredibly low prices of new renewable and natural gas generators have made it difficult for some traditional generating plants to stay in business. That's mostly good news for the climate, as the majority of plants that are shuttering burn coal, the most polluting source of energy we use. But they've also hit nuclear power hard, which is bad news from the perspective of carbon emissions.

The risk of having to close nuclear plants has led their owners to ask the federal government for a bailout, a move that initially gained some traction but has since stalled out. With that effort ground to a halt, the state of Ohio has stepped in to pass a law that will see state ratepayers subsidize a nuclear plant operator. But the bill steps into spectacularly misguided territory by also subsidizing coal plants, cutting funding for efficiency programs, and lowering the state's renewable energy standards.

What to subsidize?

The law had been sent back and forth between the House and Senate and was the subject of heavy lobbying, so both its final form and its passage had been uncertain (a Senate draft reveals extensive revisions). In part, it places new charges on the bills of all Ohio ratepayers. One will provide a subsidy to First Energy, the company that had been asking the federal government for a bailout as it faces bankruptcy. The primary beneficiary of this subsidy will be First Energy's two aging nuclear plants, which have been struggling to turn a profit in the changed energy landscape.

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