House Subcommittees Propose Much Needed Funding Boost for Key Environmental, Innovation, and Public Health Agencies
House Bill would Preserve, Reinstate Critical Oil and Gas Pollution Protections
House Subcommittees Propose Much Needed Funding Boost for Key Environmental, Innovation, and Public Health Agencies
House Bill would Preserve, Reinstate Critical Oil and Gas Pollution Protections
New currents of cooperation on California’s wicked water problems
New currents of cooperation on California’s wicked water problems
“Significantly Excessive” Profits Not Enough for Greedy FirstEnergy
Ah, to Keep “Significantly Excessive” Profits
FirstEnergy lobbyists have been busy. In addition to promoting H.B. 6 (the FirstEnergy bailout bill), they helped slip language into the massive two-year budget proposal that would relax the company’s profit limits. Back in 2008, in exchange for ensuring utilities obtain a return on any investment they make by installing wires and transformers, Ohio passed legislation prohibiting those companies from accumulating “significantly excessive” profits above a generous 17 percent (about eight times more than we earn on our savings accounts). That now doesn’t seem to be enough for the greedy utility that wants a bailout from the legislature and more subsidies from the Public Utilities Commission.
Yet when he presents testimony to federal regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jones admits that such environmental liabilities “could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.”
The flip-flop is relevant since a federal judge last month ruled that FirstEnergy could not use the bankruptcy of its subsidiary to evade its environmental responsibilities. Yet there’s a word for saying one thing to one person and the exact opposite to another. Is Jones’ nose growing?
When the Dictionary Matters
Pop wisdom holds that “a lie that is repeated a thousand times becomes truth.” FirstEnergy and its supporters repeat and repeat the false claim that H.B. 6 is not a bailout. Yet the dictionary suggests otherwise, defining bailout as “financial help to a corporation or country which otherwise would be on the brink of failure or bankruptcy.” In this case, FirstEnergy Solutions, which has filed for bankruptcy, wants Ohioans to provide it each and every year—in perpetuity—with several hundred millions of dollars to keep operating its old power plants that are no longer economic. Free-marketers may abandon their conservative principles with their repetitive mantras, but they can’t hide from the dictionary.
Benefits and Costs
FirstEnergy has never liked energy efficiency since it cuts into its sales, even as it saves its customers money. That’s why the utility and its supporters highlight the costs but ignore the benefits of waste-reducing measures. In their 2017 filings, however, Ohio utilities admitted that their efficiency programs saved each Ohioan, on average, $92.52 a year.
Since H.B. 6 would eliminate that savings, FirstEnergy might claim the bailout legislation saves money, but simple math says otherwise. The legislation would impose a $30 charge on every Ohioan to subsidize uneconomic power plants, cut the $49.20 charge for efficiency and renewable-energy programs, as well as eliminate the $92.52 in consumer savings from those programs. The result: H.B. 6 would cost the average Buckeye $73.32 each and every year.
And that, Pinocchio, is the truth. --> --> Copyright © 2019 Environmental Defense Fund |Energy, All rights reserved.
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New Study: Kids Educate Parents on Climate Change
Written by Moms Clean Air Force
New study tells us children are great educators. It suggests that young people involved in climate marches and demonstrations could influence the views of their parents.
Supreme Court Denies Oil Industry Petition to Review Oregon Clean Fuels Program
Supreme Court Denies Oil Industry Petition to Review Oregon Clean Fuels Program
The argument for public blockchains in the energy sector
Colorado charges forward with Zero Emission Vehicle proposal
Colorado charges forward with Zero Emission Vehicle proposal
Colorado charges forward with Zero Emission Vehicle proposal
This post was written by EDF attorney Laura Shields Colorado moved farther down the road toward a cleaner, less-polluting transportation sector today. The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission unanimously voted to move forward with a formal hearing to consider adoption of state Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) standards. The ZEV standards would provide for manufacturers to […]
The post Colorado charges forward with Zero Emission Vehicle proposal appeared first on Climate 411.
Colorado charges forward with Zero Emission Vehicle proposal
Colorado charges forward with Zero Emission Vehicle proposal
Policy Design for the Anthropocene
Policy Design for the Anthropocene
There’s no denying we humans are changing the planet at an unprecedented pace. If carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is any guide, that pace is increasing at an increasing rate. For those so mathematically inclined, that’s the third derivative pointing in the wrong direction. Enter The Sixth Extinction, The Uninhabitable Earth, Falter, or simply the […]
The post Policy Design for the Anthropocene appeared first on Market Forces.
Policy Design for the Anthropocene
Enough with the delays. Here’s why California’s rural communities need safe drinking water now.
California was the first state in our nation to recognize the fundamental right to water through legislation in 2012. It’s unacceptable that little has changed seven years later. The nearly 1 million Californians without safe, affordable water should not be left behind one more day.
The post Enough with the delays. Here’s why California’s rural communities need safe drinking water now. first appeared on Growing Returns.