Senate Passes Romanchuk Bill Reversing Utility Legislation

COLUMBUS—State Senator Mark Romanchuk (R-Ontario) today announced the Senate passage of Senate Bill 10, which would repeal two previously enacted utility provisions that are harmful to customers and requires refunds to be paid to Ohio's ratepayers. The legislation first repeals the revenue decoupling mechanism from House Bill 6 in the 133rd General Assembly. Decoupling separates a public utility's revenue from the volume of electricity that it sells to customers. Regardless of how much electricity is sold, decoupling operates to ensure that a utility's revenue target is reached. Senate Bill10 repeals the decoupling provision from House Bill 6 that guaranteed a particular revenue threshold. Additionally, Senate Bill 10 repeals changes to the Significantly Excessive Earnings Test (SEET) created under House Bill 166, the FY 20-21 Main Operating Budget. SEET proceedings attempt to protect consumers by guarding against any one utility earning significantly excessive profits. Until the passage of House Bill 166, all utilities were subject to SEET testing individually. House Bill 166 allowed all subsidiaries of a parent company to calculate their earnings as a group, preventing them from returning excessive profits to ratepayers. The bill requires a refund for revenues received from consumers in regards to the decoupling and SEET. "When these policies were enacted last General Assembly, they were designed not to benefit Ohio's ratepayers, but a single company," said Senator Romanchuk. "This was simply bad public policy, and I am proud of our efforts today to make it right for the people of Ohio." Senate Bill 10 will now be sent to the Ohio House for further consideration