Last week the Public Utilities Committee in the Ohio House of Representatives suspended hearings and a vote on Ohio’s house bill 178 aimed to create a Zero-Emissions Nuclear Resource program. A committee member said there was not “a keen desire” in the House to vote on the bill.

The ZENR program would help to ensure the continued operation of FirstEnergy Corporation’s Ohio nuclear plants, Davis Besse and Perry.  Under the proposal, it would cost customers and additional $5 per month to keep the plants open.  The legislation would follow measures enacted last year by the states of New York and Illinois.

William Seitz, Chairman of the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee said, “I am not sensing a keen desire on the part of the House members to vote on this and doubt that we will have more hearings in the near future unless something cataclysmic should happen.”

Meanwhile, a group of “concerned citizens, scientists, business leaders, conservationists, and community leaders” wrote to Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO:  “We are writing to urge you to expand Amazon’s commitment to clean energy and job creation by including nuclear energy in Amazon’s definition of renewables. Doing so would save Ohio’s nuclear plants, Davis-Besse and Perry, which provide 90% of Ohio’s electricity from clean energy, and 1,400 high-paying green jobs.”

The letter, made public by the Environmental Progress research and policy organization, applauds online trader commitment to clean energy and job creation. Amazon Web Services has committed to achieving 100% renewable energy usage for its global infrastructure footprint, while the company has publicly supported the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, and is a leading corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the USA.