Say No to NOPEC

Do you live in a NOPEC town? 

Smart Community Choice Aggregation can be a great tool to fight climate change

Aggregation can do more than save you money. When utilized thoughtfully, aggregation can also help your community reduce its local carbon footprint, fight climate change, and improve our environment and public health -- but only if your town fights to include renewable energy sources in their NOPEC aggregation contract.

NOPEC does not automatically include or require even a minimum of green energy sources in their contracts -- not unless communities demand it. While a lot of towns don’t know that negotiating green contracts is even an option, some are wisely adding renewable energy requirements to their aggregation contracts. Several Ohio communities have done so, making pledges to get to 100% renewable energy by 2025. But these kinds of goals can only be met with the help of aggregation contracts that prioritize green energy in their electricity choices.

NOPEC should be regularly offering affordable renewable energy choices to all of its customers, and communities have the right to know exactly what’s in any NOPEC renewable energy program so you can be sure they’re offering the best deal.

Ohio Citizen Action, together with the Power a Clean Future Ohio campaign, is working to help communities across Ohio understand how to negotiate stronger, greener aggregation contracts for your electricity. But we need your help to make better contracts a genuine priority -- with your community and with NOPEC.

NOPEC towns just received an offer that should be refused.

If you live in a NOPEC town, NOPEC recently made a pitch to your city’s leaders about participating in their questionable renewable energy plan, and they are moving fast to get your town locked into a contract with a needlessly rushed end-of-the-year deadline. It’s questionable because they’ve left too many things up in the air that community decision makers need to know BEFORE making a decision of this magnitude. This isn’t the time for a “blind faith” approach to lowering emissions and cutting the cost of our energy bills. 

Please write your Mayor!

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Melissa English Proponent Testimony on House Bill 351

House Public Utilities Committee

Chairman Hoops, Vice Chair Ray, and Ranking Member Smith

Proponent Testimony on House Bill 351

Testimony of Melissa K. English

Deputy Director, Ohio Citizen Action

September 29, 2021

Chairman Hoops, Vice Chair Ray, Ranking Member Smith, and Members of the Public Utilities Committee, my name is Melissa English and I’m the Deputy Director of Ohio Citizen Action. I thank you for the opportunity to present our support for House Bill 351.

This testimony is presented on behalf of Ohio Citizen Action’s 32,000 members and all Ohio utility ratepayers who have a stake in the decision before you.

While we acknowledge that portions of House Bill 6, the bill at the center of a $61 million bribery scandal, have been revoked, the repeal is incomplete without a full reversal of the bailout for two dirty coal plants operated by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation or OVEC.

OVEC is owned by Ohio’s major electric utilities and consists of two large coal plants – Kyger Creek in Cheshire, Ohio and Clifty Creek in Madison, Indiana. OVEC was formed in 1952 by utilities to provide electric services in the Ohio River Valley to provide power for uranium enrichment facilities then under construction by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Portsmouth. Many of those who support the OVEC bailout will often point out the fact that the plants were a national security resource as they powered the factory making the atomic bomb materials at the heart of the U.S. Cold War strategy. That was true once but has not been for decades. And it was not true when the utilities in question negotiated their latest intercompany power agreement that is in effect until June 30, 2040.

Before the passage of House Bill 6, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) had already approved bailouts for AEP, Duke, and Dayton Power & Light’s shares of the OVEC coal plants through the mid-2020s with an argument that the plants could be profitable if power prices were to increase significantly. Instead, the plants have lost money every single year and been a financial drain and environmental burden on Ohioans.

Why we need an Environmental Justice champion at FERC

By Tobili Hatcher

The time to have an Environmental Justice Champion at the helm of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has long been overdue. FERC regulators and regulations have a monumental impact on the environment and environmental justice. For these reasons and more, Ohio Citizen Action recently signed a letter addressed to President Joseph R. Biden to consider three Environmental Justice champions, Mr. Daniel Blackman, Ms. Marquita Bradshaw, and Ms. Nidhi Thakar to take the lead on this committee. This effort, spearheaded by WE ACT for Environmental Justice and the Center for Biological Diversity, hopes to encourage the Biden administration to act quickly and appoint an Environmental and Energy Justice champion to FERC.

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Hatcher: A Reflection on the August 6 City Club of Cleveland Friday Forum event

On Friday, August 6, Ohio Citizen Action’s Executive Director Rachael Belz was invited to speak on a panel at The City Club.  Belz was joined by her colleagues and friends; Leah Hudnall of Ohio Climate Justice Fund and Tanner Yess of Groundwork Ohio River Valley. Over the course of the hour-long conversation moderated by Margaret Bernstein, guests were able to listen to a much needed conversation centered around climate change, community power, and climate equity. 

The panel discussion revealed the roles that we as individuals play in the overall larger conversation surrounding climate change and community leadership. 

For me, one of the biggest takeaways was a quote from Tanner Yess. Throughout the conversation, he made sure to stress the fact that “with climate change, solutions have to be nuanced, they have to fit, they have to be large-scale, and they have to be impactful.” While on some level, I knew that climate change solutions wouldn’t be completely one-size fit all, some part of me truly believed that until I heard Tanner give tangible examples.

Leah also stepped in and reminded us how there are often conversations surrounding climate change happening in many Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities, but due to lack of funding and not having many resources available, their voices are not being heard. As Leah pointed out, “funder relations [are] one of the biggest barriers stopping Black, Latinx, and indigenous groups from even receiving a look at a grant or an opportunity.” 

How Sam Randazzo defines a bribe

Sam Randazzo has his own definition of a bribe. The former Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio resigned in November 2020 following an FBI raid of his Columbus home. In an op-ed written by Randazzo in 2013, he referred to Ohio’s successful renewable energy and energy efficiency standards as “consumer-supplied bribes” to get people to support and invest in clean energy sources and get on the “mandate bandwagon.”

Today however, bribes mean something quite different to Sam Randazzo. As a result of the settlement agreement reached with FirstEnergy following their orchestration of a $61 million scandal to pass House Bill 6 into law, the utility giant admitted in federal filings that they bribed Randazzo to help them craft House Bill 6 and stall a rate case that would have reduced revenues for the company.

Sam Randazzo now clearly understands the difference between investing in job growth and reduced emissions for Ohio and investing in your own personal bottom line. He understands the true meaning of a bribe.

One year ago today, FBI agents arrested five men in the HB6 scandal

It has been one year since Ohioans first learned of the $61 million bribery scandal surrounding House Bill 6. We are still working to clear the cloud of corruption and disgrace that hangs over our state government.

The costly coal subsidies and provisions gutting our clean energy standards implemented by House Bill 6 remain in effect today, costing our ratepayers millions every day and dragging down our economic growth.

Over the past year, Ohio lawmakers have had the perfect opportunity to develop a real energy policy for our state. Instead, they have chosen to pass legislation designed to erode property owner rights, abandon an all-of-the-above energy strategy, and pit neighbor against neighbor.

Ohio deserves a comprehensive energy policy built around equitable solutions that are good for our economy, our communities, and our health. We call on the Ohio General Assembly to stand up to big utilities and take back our energy future.