Sierra Club Launches Radio Ad Against Legislative Coal Bailout

Last week, a report from Dr. Ezra Hausman showed these plants – Kyger Creek in Ohio and Clifty Creek in Indiana – can no longer compete in today’s energy markets absent the customer-funded subsidies in the bailout bill.  The report also explains how the purported “national security” rationale for this bailout is wrong. The decisions that have left these plants’ owners saddled with debt were all made after the federal government’s uranium enrichment program ended, and after Ohio had begun pursuing its path of deregulating the state’s power plants.

According to the legislative proposals, any and all costs associated with operating these 1950s-era coal-burning power plants would be put onto the bills of Ohio’s electricity customers for more than two decades. It would shift all costs from each respective utility’s ownership share in these power plants to customers for the next twenty three years and would require customers to pay for old, polluting generation that is not competitive with newer, cleaner alternatives.

The full audio of the radio ad can be found here.

“Ohio’s investor owned utilities are making another coal bailout attempt; this time in the Ohio  Statehouse,” said Daniel Sawmiller, Senior Representative of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Ohio. “This radio ad encourages customers to tell their lawmakers to say no to higher electricity bills and to vote no on this legislative coal bailout.”