The utility that owns Ohio鈥檚 two nuclear power sites say it needs to charge its customers more in order save the struggling plants. The senator who鈥檚 proposing a bill that would allow that to happen is accused of having a conflict of interest.
Sen. John Eklund of Chardon is an attorney with a firm that represents FirstEnergy, which owns Ohio鈥檚 nuclear power plants. Eklund鈥檚 bill would allow FirstEnergy to charge customers more to subsidize those plants, but he notes the state鈥檚 ethics commission says there shouldn鈥檛 be any concerns about conflicts.
And Eklund says saving these nuclear power plants ensures that Ohio isn鈥檛 just relying on whatever energy source is cheapest at the time, because in his words that鈥�
鈥淓xposes the system to the weakness of that energy source and does not take advantage of the strengths of the other energy sources.鈥�
Manufacturers and consumer groups have said this is just another request for a bailout from FirstEnergy, which already lost a fight to help its coal plants.
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