CLEVELAND, Ohio — Efforts by the state’s traditional monopoly power companies to persuade lawmakers to scrap competitive markets and return to a fully regulated system could run afoul of an important political player — voters.
A telephone survey conducted in January by Fallon Research and Communications, of Columbus and Washington, D.C., found strong voter opposition to the state returning to traditional utility monopolies.
Fallon’s interviewers talked to more than 800 Ohio voters about key issues that are likely to emerge in the State House when lawmakers consider changing Ohio’s 16-year embrace of competition.
American Electric Power, headquartered in Columbus, Akron-based FirstEnergy and Dayton Power and Light have already been talking about “re-structuring” and have kept the legislative leadership up to date, Nick Akins, CEO of AEP, told investors last week.
The poll found that:
- More than 91 percent would oppose any law change allowing FirstEnergy or Columbus-based AEP to build new power plants and raise monthly rates to pay for them. AEP wants to do exactly that, build wind and solar farms and maybe new gas turbine plants while selling off or closing its old coal units.
- Nearly 79 percent would oppose any legislation that did away with a customer’s choice to shop for power suppliers. Dozens of independent suppliers now compete for customers through a state-maintained “Energy Choice” website. A return to old-style regulation could end that kind of competition, say independent power companies, forcing customers to return to their traditional electric utilities for electricity as well as delivery.
- Nearly 62 percent said they would oppose paying extra every month to support older power plants that cannot compete well against modern gas turbine plants. FirstEnergy has persuaded state regulators to do just that — though the latest subsidy does not mention its power plants. Federal regulators objected to earlier, more expensive proposals that spelled out exactly how the extra fees — amounting to an extra monthly consumer bill every year — would be spent.
- Nearly 60 percent of voters would object to the creation of special subsidies for one fuel source — in this case FirstEnergy’s nuclear power plants, which are expensive to operate and do not always compete well against gas turbine plants. The idea has been adopted in New York and Illinois, but has been challenged as anti-competitive. FirstEnergy is considering asking for such a subsidy but has not made a final decision.
The Alliance for Energy Choice, the trade group representing independent power producers, paid for the polling.
Alliance spokesperson Todd A. Snitchler, a former chairman of the Public Utilities Committee of Ohio, said the results were surprisingly consistent.
“The results of the poll clearly demonstrate that talk about a need for re-regulation or changes to Ohio’s energy landscape is pointed in the wrong direction,” he said.
“Consumers are interested in lowest cost power for their families and businesses, not paying above-market prices to ensure higher dividends for a handful of companies and their shareholders.”
He said the independent power companies have been talking about the results with legislators.
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