COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Energy, Delta-8 THC products, and police quotas were among the topics for some of the bills that advanced in the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday.
Energy Overhaul and Repeal of Corrupt Legislation
House Bill 15 is heading to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk after passing the statehouse with bipartisan support and only three lawmakers opposed to it between the House and Senate.
“I truly believe that what we passed today has the opportunity to be transformational for Ohio,” Ohio Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said.
“This is pretty complex stuff,” Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said. “I don’t want to say something like, ‘It’s the most significant energy bill in the last 30 years’ because I don’t know all of the energy bills in the last 30 years, but others have said that. So, I think it’s very important.”
The legislation aims to address issues like energy shortages to help attract businesses to Ohio.
“There’s already folks who are building gas power and other types of power in Ohio, or planning to, based on this bill being passed,” Huffman said.
“We can’t continue to recruit new kinds of businesses and operations in the state of Ohio without having a clear plan and direction for sustainable energy,” Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said.
The bill does things like bring more transparency to energy rates while redefining portions of the state’s energy laws. McColley said there is a key part that will uplift Ohio.
“We’re leaning into the natural gas competitive advantage that we have in the state of Ohio,” he said. “Most other states do not have the natural resources right underneath their own soil that we have, that is a competitive advantage we can market to the rest of the country, especially at a time when energy is more scarce.”
“We see this bill as a compromise that really benefits the people of Ohio,” Antonio said.
Democratic leaders like Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said while the bill has positives, there are some missing pieces.
“Solar energy project incentive pieces were taken out of that that we had put into the House bill. But overall, I think it’s still a good bill,” Russo said. “Does it meet the demands and needs of our grid at the moment? No, this is not that bill, but it definitely has positive components to it.”
Among the dozens of provisions in the bill, one piece Russo described as “clearly long overdue.”
“Repealing the OVEC riders,” she said. That is the additional charge for the two coal plants, one of which is in Indiana, that came out of House Bill 6.
Passed in 2019, House Bill 6 exposed the state’s largest corruption scheme. The parts of the legislation directly tied to the bribery scandal were repealed, but the part that bails out two Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) coal plants on the backs of Ohio ratepayers has remained intact the past six years.
Huffman said the passage of HB 15 will do more than just close the chapter on the repeal debate.
“Of course, I’m glad that the OVEC stuff is going away, but it’s really a product of getting rid of the subsidies and therefore moving towards a free market system,” Huffman said. “The government cannot solve this energy problem. It has to get solved by the free market, and that’s what this bill is going to do.”
DeWine signed House Bill 6 in 2019, so how does he feel about the remaining portions being repealed? Back in January, before the repeal bill was even introduced, DeWine said he is fine with it.
“That is not something that was part of [House Bill 6] that I thought was necessary, but it was something that the legislature put in there,” DeWine said.
Last week, though, DeWine changed his tune.
“I have not looked at that at all,” he said. “I’ll tell you later.”
DeWine has ten days to decide whether he wants to sign or veto the bill once it gets to his desk.
Delta-8, Police Quotas, Jo Ann Davidson
Several other bills took steps forward on Wednesday.
A bill to establish Jo Ann Davidson Day is also on its way to DeWine’s desk. That bill is in honor of Davidson, the only woman to ever serve as Ohio Speaker of the House.
Legislation to ban the use of police quotas passed the Ohio Senate on Wednesday and now heads to the House for consideration. There is already an identical bill in the House being worked on, which can help fast-track the bill for passage.
Plus, a bill to regulate Delta-8 products, a low-level THC product, also passed the Ohio Senate. The Ohio House is working on its own versions of these bills, too, but this effort stalled last year when lawmakers could not see eye to eye on whether a ban or just regulation was necessary.
