Demonstrators posted themselves on all four corners in downtown Bowling Green Thursday afternoon to urge the repeal of House Bill 6.
The legislation passed in 2019 to provide ratepayer funding for bailouts of two FirstEnergy nuclear plants and two coal plants. The political maneuvering around the legislation is at the center of a major political scandal in which former House Speaker Larry Householder is charged for a $61 million bribery scheme aimed at getting the bill passed and keeping a referendum to repeal it off the ballot.
The rally, which attracted something over a dozen protestors, was organized by the county’s Green Party.
Joe DeMare, co-chair of the county party, called HB6 “a corrupt piece of legislation.”
“It was a bad policy to begin with but as soon as it became clear it was as a result of corruption it should have been repealed immediately,” he said.
The Ohio House held hearings instead, and missed the deadline to keep the charges from hitting ratepayers’ bills in January.
The hearings rather than opening up the process, DeMare claimed, only served to delay action.
“Most Ohioans ,” he said opposed HB6 when it was proposed, “and most Ohioans oppose it now.”
The rally was meant to keep the issue before the public.
“It’s really important that we not bail out the nukes, that we not bail out the coal plants, that we not let corrupt stand in Ohio.”
