Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

Ohio budget amendments: another utility ‘bailout’ and a rollback of wind setbacks

Midwest Energy News: Ohio’s budget bill reported out of the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday comes with an amendment that would expressly authorize extra charges to ratepayers to support utilities’ financial health. Meanwhile, another amendment would relax the tripled wind turbine setbacks that were included at the last minute in a 2014 budget bill.

Ohio House Bill 49 could head to the Ohio Senate floor as early as today. The amendment to bolster utilities’ credit ratings has gotten a chorus of criticism from groups that have opposed various other “bailout” proposals.

“This proposal is bad for Ohioans,” said Joe Nichols of the Buckeye Institute, a free-market think tank group in Columbus. “It would give utilities one more way to raise consumers’ electricity rates…. Ohio lawmakers should reject this last-minute budget gimmick.”

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