FirstEnergy lobbyists have worked for weeks to convince state lawmakers to scrap or freeze state energy efficiency mandates that require utilities to help customers use less electricity. The company says the requirements interfere with normal market growth and will ultimately be too expensive for customers.
Clik here to view.
Ohio Statehouse
The state's electric utilities are planning a sneak attack on Ohio's energy efficiency mandates, say advocates who fought to have the rules put into Ohio law four years ago.
In a Monday news conference in Columbus, Steve Caminati of the Advanced Energy Economy Ohio said the utilities have been shopping proposed amendments to lawmakers in an effort to get the regulations changed in the lame duck session of the General Assembly.
Caminati said FirstEnergy is "leading this initiative."
FirstEnergy Corp. spokesman Todd Schneider said it is hardly a secret that the Akron-based company wants the law changed. However, he said that no lawmaker has been willing to sponsor the company's amendment.
An early version of the amendment, obtained from other sources, appears to freeze the energy efficiency standards at current levels.
Created in a 2008 bill approved by all by one state lawmaker, the efficiency standards direct the electric utilities to help their customers reduce consumption by 22 percent by 2025.
Mandated reductions for 2012 are about 0.8 percent.
Consumers across the state have seen utility-sponsored discounts on lighting and energy efficient appliances because of the law. The utilities have paid for those discounts by raising delivery rates slightly.
The same process has happened among commercial and industrial customers, though on a much more dramatic scale.
Schneider said the company would prefer to freeze the standards at current levels this year -- in other words, during the lame duck session of the General Assembly.
Next year, the company would be open to a full-blown legislative examination of the long-term energy efficiency standards, said Doug Colafella, another FirstEnergy spokesman.
FirstEnergy Chief Executive Anthony Alexander and other top executives have made it clear during investor presentations that the mandates are interfering with normal market development.
Caminati speculated that a pending bill, House Bill 379, could be amended and used as a vehicle to carry legislation to weaken the efficiency standards.
HB 379 is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday in the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee. Sen. Shannon Jones, a Republican from Springboro who chairs the committee, said she has not asked for amendments to the bill, nor is it scheduled for a committee vote.
Jones said concerns are "entirely premature" that there is a plan to pass legislation that would weaken the energy efficiency standards. But she said the topic is ripe for discussion.
"There have been conversations ongoing with interested parties," she said. "The only thing I've said is I'm certainly open to hearing what people have to say about it."
Gov. John Kasich reportedly has been opposed to changing the mandates during the lame duck session of the General Assembly.
One reason is that the governor's efforts to help industry and institutions build power plants using waste heat or power plants that make heat and power could be imperiled by changes in the mandates.
Rob Nichols, spokesman for Kasich, said the administration is not involved. "We are aware of the effort (to freeze the regulations) and we are monitoring it," he said.
Plain Dealer Statehouse Reporter Joe Guillen contributed to this article.