Ohio House bill would declare nuclear power as â¿¿green energy'

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A lengthy, bipartisan list of Ohio House lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that would expand the legal definition of “green energy” to include nuclear power.

The bill is a way of saying that Ohio should increase its nuclear generation, and that the state is open for business to the industry, according to state Rep. Sean Brennan, a Parma Democrat who sponsored it. He said he supports wind and solar power, but if Ohio is going to get off fossil fuels, nuclear power is realistically going to need to be a major part of the way there.

 Last year, state lawmakers added a provision to state law that created a new legal definition for the term “green energy” that explicitly includes energy generated via natural gas.

 The new law also includes any energy resource that either releases “reduced” air pollutants or is more sustainable “relative to some fossil fuels” – an expansive definition for a term usually reserved for renewable resources like wind or solar power.

Brennan wasn’t in the House at the time, but said he’d have voted against that, because gas is a fossil fuel and therefore not “green.” Nuclear, on the other hand, produces huge amounts of power without emitting the hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide as coal or gas.

 The bill, according to Brennan, doesn’t provide any subsidies or credits and is largely symbolic. State Rep. Dick Stein, a Norwalk Republican, a cosponsor who has carried other pro-nuclear bills, didn’t return a phone call.

More than half the power Ohio generated in 2022 came from natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Another roughly 12% came from Ohio’s two nuclear plants, located near Toledo and Cleveland, owned by Energy Harbor. Renewables produced about 4%.

 The bill has not yet been assigned to a committee, where it would undergo hearings before any future votes.