With time ticking before the two-year legislative session ends, Ohio lawmakers in both chamber’s GOP caucuses are rolling bills into one another to see what sticks.
Some of those amended bills cleared the Ohio Senate chamber Wednesday afternoon. Among them was House Bill 308, which adds natural gas as a resource and nuclear reactions to the state’s definition of “green” energy.
“If we’re looking to reduce carbon dioxide emissions … One of the most efficient ways of doing it is through nuclear power,” said Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware). “Yes, you have to treat the radioactive waste properly, which we do.”
The original bill had bipartisan sponsorship from Reps. Dick Stein (R-Norwalk) and Sean Brennan (D-Parma). It drew ire from some Democrats in both the House in June and the Senate on Wednesday, who disagreed with idea of extending green energy status to nuclear energy, in part since the production of it creates radioactive waste.
Some lawmakers also want to extend the standard lease terms of contracts to frack under state parks, and about 24 hours before the session, added provisions to do so in HB 308. The standard lease terms are currently three years, but this brings the standard terms to five.
“This is perhaps the least popular thing we will do in the entire General Assembly,” said Sen. Kent Smith (D-Euclid).
Just two days before, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’s Oil and Gas Land Management Commission awarded a drilling permit in one park and allowed more acreage in another to be drilled under—to the public protest of a dozen environmental activists. The vast majority of submitted comments, 98%, were against those decisions.
Other amendments included broadband pole reimbursement provisions and board of health funds.
Later Wednesday evening, the House voted to concur with the Senate changes, meaning HB 308 is off to Gov. Mike DeWine. Brennan voted against concurring. Brennan is a “purist” when it comes to state parks, he said, and believes they shouldn’t be fracked under.
With hours-long sessions in both chambers, the Senate sent other heavily-amended bills back to the House, including adding election law changes to House Bill 74 and more than a dozen changes to House Bill 315.
Any bills that do not make it to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk by the time the legislature adjourns, likely sometime between next Wednesday and Thursday, would need to be reintroduced in 2025.
