If I understand correctly, they were trying to get funding to put nuclear plants back online. There are legitimate, scientific, climate-friendly arguments for investing in nuclear, especially on existing infrastructure.
They could have made that argument. Instead, they bribed everyone in sight. Probably cheaper. The cost of shaping the narrative must be justified to the shareholders.
If I understand correctly, they were trying to get funding to put nuclear plants back online.
That doesn’t sound like Ohio. That did occur in Michigan though.
Ohio was bribery of the Republican party, including the Speaker of the House (another Republican), signed by the Republican Governor to force passage of legislation that subsidizes coal and nuclear power. The reason they needed subsidies was because they were unprofitable. Meanwhile government regulators denied commercial grade solar projects because they said it wouldn’t benefit rate payer (electricity customers). The solar project wasn’t even asking for subsidies, just approval to put the solar farm in.
That former Republican speaker of the House is now in prison. The legislation passed because the bribes is still on the books and Ohioans are still paying the higher rates so the Electricity companies get the profits they wanted (and bribed for). That Republican Governor that signed it, is still the Governor of Ohio.
Now that sounds like Ohio. I wasn’t aware of this story, but I was aware we’re drastically behind Indiana and Michigan on renewable energy and that we overuse coal despite its unprofitability. But I’d just assumed it was because standard Appalachian Republican bullshit.
The Palisades plant in Michigan recently (last few months) received a 1.5 billion dollar loan from the federal government for recommissioning. As far as I know, there’s no scandal there.
This is about two active plants in Ohio in 2018 that the operator wanted the state to bail out, which they did, to the tune of $1 billion dollars.
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