Ohio Consumers Power Alliance

05/29/2026

FirstEnergy chose shareholder profits over grid maintenance for decades. Now they want customers to pay $481 million to fix the damage plus higher bills going forward.

FirstEnergy has asked Ohio regulators for a increase that could boost average residential customer bills by about $100 more next year — and nearly $180 more per year within three years.

05/28/2026

GOOD NEWS 🌤️ Olmsted Falls City Council has passed a resolution in support of HB 303 - a community energy pilot program that would help lower electricity costs for families and small businesses at a time when rates keep climbing. They're joining Cleveland Heights, Lakewood, Fairview Park, Columbus, and Wyoming in calling on the Ohio legislature to make it happen.

05/28/2026

Gov. DeWine said the state won't consider new requests for a sales tax exemption for data centers in Ohio. The tax break cost nearly $1.6 billion in 2025, according to the Department of Taxation- a number that shocked and angered lawmakers after reporting by Jake Zuckerman and Morgan Trau

Ohio's tax break for data centers was projected to cost $136 million last year. The state lost nearly $1.6 billion.

05/27/2026

The Ohio Supreme Court mostly rejected opponents' challenges to the Oak Run Solar project, but sent it back to the Power Siting Board to address one issue: the visual impact of transmission line poles. Ohio's largest proposed solar farm is still moving forward.

The court ruled Tuesday that the Oak Run Solar project must provide more information to the Ohio Power Siting Board about the project's visual impacts.

05/26/2026

Ohio gave Meta, Google, and Amazon a sales tax break for data centers. It was supposed to cost $136 million in 2025. It cost $1.6 billion. Gov. DeWine vetoed the legislature's attempt to end it, insisting the tax exemption is needed to lure data center developers to the state. https://signalohio.org/ohio-data-center-tax-break-cost-1-4-billion-more-than-expected-in-2025/

05/26/2026

Solar and wind are now the cheapest electricity on Earth. A new international energy report is working out what it costs to pair solar, wind and batteries together so the lights stay on even when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/clean-energy/24-7-renewables-could-happen-soon

05/21/2026

Community energy = community investment. A proposed South Toledo solar field would generate $100K/year in energy credits- money that goes directly toward rehabilitating homes in the Old South End.

A standalone community solar array in South Toledo is moving forward to city council, but the district councilman isn’t weighing in on whether it should be ...

05/21/2026

"The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates 1.25 million acres of farmland have been converted for solar – less than half of 1% of the country’s farmland, and about as much land as is lost every year to urban sprawl."

Community-scale solar farms are booming in Illinois thanks to state incentives.

05/19/2026

Both candidates for Governor are promising lower energy bills for Ohio families. But their plans differ on specifics of utility oversight, energy assistance, rate regulation, and energy sources. Ohio voters deserve to know the details, not just promises.

Six of Ohio’s largest investor-owned electric and gas utilities contributed more than $2 million to the Republican Governors Association and Democratic Governors Association since January of last year, in an election cycle where Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton have both campaigne...

05/19/2026

Ohio's grid reliability problem didn't happen by accident. Utilities and their allies in the state legislature spent years blocking the clean energy and efficiency measures that could have prevented it. Now they want ratepayers to accept more outages.

FirstEnergy and Duke say factors like worsening extreme weather led to missed 2025 targets. The state will soon decide whether to accept more and longer…