Ohio lawmakers on April 12 announced a plan to provide financial support to the state’s two nuclear power plants by adding a surcharge to customers’ electric bills. The bill’s supporters said it also would generate as much as $ 300 million annually for clean power generation in Ohio, though the measure calls for abolishing mandates for renewable energy.

House Speaker Larry Householder (R), leader of the state’s Republican-controlled House that is backing the bill, said the proposal—called the Ohio Clean Air Program (OCAP) —would do more than save the nuclear plants. About half the money raised by the surcharge would go to Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo and the Perry plant near Cleveland.

The nuclear plants are scheduled to close by 2021 unless operator FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) can find a buyer for the plants or financial relief to keep them open. FES sought bankruptcy protection in March 2018, just after the company notified regional transmission organization (RTO) PJM Interconnection that it would close four uneconomic nuclear units—a total of 4 GW, including the two Ohio plants—in the RTO’s footprint.…

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