As opposition grows against the sweeping coal plant bailout
cases before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Sierra Club is blanketing
the state again with new ads slamming state utilities for trying to prop up
their outdated plants by increasing electricity costs on customers' bills.
Statewide radio ads, direct mail pieces, online ads and animated web gifs
accompany a new suite of aggressive curbside kiosk ads in downtown Columbus .
This new round of advertising will continue to hit the state throughout the
holiday season.
Since August, the "No Coal Bailouts" campaign has
garnered and submitted thousands of petitions to the PUCO. In October, a group
of 12 Ohio businesses, including Lowe's Home Improvement, Staples Inc. and Macy's Inc. , sent a letter
urging regulators to reject the bailouts proposal. The businesses cited a new
poll by Public Policy Partners showing a strong percentage of Ohio electricity
customers favor clean, renewable energy sources to power the state -- and do
not support paying more to keep aging coal plants in operation.
"These monopoly utilities are trying to ditch free
market principles and make Ohio electricity customers pay for outdated,
polluting, dead-end coal plants," said Allison Fisher of Public Citizen, a
consumer organization that has joined the fight against the bailouts.
"Coal is becoming less and less competitive, and it's unfair to force
Ohioans to pay for something they don't want."
The campaign focuses on Columbus -based American Electric
Power (AEP), Cincinnati -based Duke Energy and Akron -based FirstEnergy , whose
requests for bailouts encompass all of Ohio's remaining coal plants. While most
states are focusing new investments in clean energy, Ohio utilities are working
to increase their reliance on dangerous fossil fuels following the passage of
Senate Bill 310, a controversial new law that guts Ohio's renewable energy and
energy efficiency standards. A Columbus Dispatch investigation recently revealed state officials buried a report on green jobs that could have
influenced the outcome of the clean energy and efficiency-gutting bill.
FirstEnergy , in the wake of its bailout requests, was the only Ohio utility to
request eliminating energy efficiency programs following SB 310, and last
month, the PUCO approved the request.
According to Ohio Consumers' Counsel testimony earlier this
year in AEP's pending case, the utility was seeking to charge Ohio customers an
estimated $117 million to bail out two coal plants that were built in the early
1950s -- Kyger Creek in Cheshire, Ohio , and Clifty Creek in Madison, Ind. The
coal plants are not competitive with today's market prices for electricity.
Meanwhile, AEP has since added four more coal plants to its bailout request.
The measure, if approved by the PUCO, would guarantee AEP a revenue stream for
its aging coal plants, forcing other electricity generators to compete in an
unfair market that benefits AEP and makes customers' electric bills higher than
they should be.
In hearings that have recently concluded, Duke Energy
requested a similar bailout for its coal plants, but for an even longer period
of time. FirstEnergy has also requested bailouts to continue operating its
outdated plants, including the Davis Besse nuclear plant and W. H. Sammis , a
coal plant that the Environmental Protection Agency has labeled as one of the
worst polluters in the state.
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