Statehouse News Bureau

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Householder: Effort To Overturn Energy Bill Is Backed By Chinese Gas Companies

By Karen Kasler

Published July 27, 2019 at 9:11 PM EDT

Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) talks to reporters after a House session in June. [Karen Kasler] — Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) talks to reporters after a House session in June.

The Ohio House Speaker says opponents of the new law that will give $150 million a year in subsidies to Ohio’s two nuclear power plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions will need big money to overturn it.

Natural gas provides a third of Ohio’s electricity generation.

Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) said three of the four natural gas powered plants in Ohio are funded by Chinese interests. In an interview, he said overturning House Bill 6by the group Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts will be “vastly expensive”.

“The only folks that have a tremendous interest in closing down our nuclear power plants, where Ohio generates its energy and where there are Ohio jobs, are people from outside the state of Ohio who want to monopolize our grid. And who are they? They’re foreign nationals from China," Householder said.

Householder said potential Chinese involvement is a security issue as well.

A spokesman for Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts said he wouldn’t respond to Householder’s comments, but said the coalition includes energy, environmental and good government groups.