The Real Costs of House Bill 6: OECAF and Energy Efficiency Experts Call on General Assembly to Consider Complete and Accurate Cost Information in Debating Repeal

COLUMBUS, Sept. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, energy efficiency experts and advocates calling for a full and immediate repeal of House Bill 6 walked through data to dispute the inaccurate and incomplete information used to calculate the short and long-term costs associated with the tainted legislation.

Supporters of the bailout legislation have long presented consumer cost savings information based on whiteboard math first sketched out by former House Speaker Larry Householder when House Bill 6 was introduced in April of 2019. These numbers do not tell the whole story.

"House Bill 6 has always been a bad deal for Ohioans," said Trish Demeter, Chief of Staff of the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund. "Proponents of this alleged corrupt legislation continue to tell an incomplete and inaccurate story when they say the bill will save Ohioans money. Their numbers exclude savings from using less energy through energy efficiency programs, they exclude additional charges that will hit FirstEnergy customers even harder through a little-known decoupling provision, and they skew compliance costs associated with the renewable energy standard." 

The numbers included in the analysis provided by House Bill 6 supporters ignored the savings enjoyed by Ohioans as a result of successful efficiency programs that were gutted by the bill, as well as the long-term costs associated with bailout out of two of the region's oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants.

A side-by-side comparison of the impact to the average residential monthly utility bill in Ohio under House Bill 6 and before the passage of the bill was detailed during the event.

Energy efficiency programs in place prior to the passage of House Bill 6 carried an average monthly fee of $3.36.  These programs provide homeowners and small businesses with rebates and incentives to switch out aging appliances and upgrade old equipment that wastes energy. Based on filings with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, utilities report savings of $2.65 for every dollar invested, for an average monthly savings of $7.71 per customer, resulting in cumulative savings of over $7 billion since 2009. 

Instead of saving customers money, House Bill 6 on the other hand, results in average bills that are $7 per month higher because of lost efficiency savings, lower investments in renewable energy and a new utility decoupling bonus.  

"You can't analyze the impacts of House Bill 6 by just taking out the costs of efficiency programs and ignoring the much larger cost savings they provide.  Any objective, balanced analysis would conclude that the cancellation of efficiency programs in the bill would leave Ohio consumers much worse off," said Chris Neme, Principal of Energy Futures Group. "Utility energy efficiency programs are required by law to be cost-effective – they must save more money than they cost.  Proponents of House Bill 6 deceptively excluded those cost savings from their analyses of the bill."

With income loss and other challenges resulting from COVID-19, House Bill 6 would force Ohio consumers to subsidize a corporation involved in a federal racketeering scandal while also sacrificing their energy efficiency cost savings.

"Along with political donations that allegedly came from bribes, former Speaker Householder handed out misleading calculations about the cost of HB6. Nobody should be taking either of those things," said Tom Bullock, Executive Director of Citizens Utility Board (CUB-OH). "CUB Ohio has a fast-growing membership from every corner of the state who agree that Ohio consumers matter, utility bills must be fair, and the alleged corruption and bribery that rigged rules to increase their costs by more than $1 billion must not stand."

Just one day before the House Select Committee on Energy Reform and Policy meets for the first time, advocates called on members of the Ohio General Assembly to consider the real costs of House Bill 6 and move forward with a full and immediate repeal.

"Our elected officials must act on the opportunity to right this wrong and restore faith and confidence in Ohio government," said Demeter. "House Bill 6 has always been bad public policy, even before news of the alleged corruption surfaced. The only move is a full and immediate repeal of House Bill 6."

SOURCE Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund