Ohio’s Energy Market: The Fast Track to Economic Suicide

By Nancy Carrington, eGeneration News

Ohio is sitting on a powder keg. On the surface, we have the bones of a strong economy — manufacturing capacity, central location, abundant natural resources, and a workforce that still remembers how to work. But looking at the trajectory of our energy market as the daughter of an economist - and knowing the law of supply and demand, I see the kind of slow-motion disaster that will turn “The Heart of It All” into the Rust Belt’s hospice ward.

This isn’t hyperbole. The numbers, the policies, and the political landscape all point to one unavoidable reality: if Ohio doesn’t rip the steering wheel away from PJM and FERC — both still riddled with Obama-era, renewable-obsessed bureaucrats — we’ll soon be paying electric bills that look suspiciously like mortgages.

The Obama-Era Seeds of Disaster

Ohio’s current deregulated market, administered under PJM Interconnection, was shaped and supercharged during the Obama administration. FERC, swollen with Obama appointees drunk on the idea that wind and solar could replace coal, nuclear, and natural gas, rubber-stamped a massive expansion of regional grid authority. They’ve never walked it back.

The result? Policy severely tilted toward the rapid build out of intermittent “renewables” that don’t just fail to solve the greenhouse gas problem — they make it worse. Yes, worse. The moment you add weather-dependent wind and solar into the grid, you must backstop them with dispatchable generation — coal, gas, or nuclear — ready to fire up at a moment’s notice. That ramping and cycling burns more fuel and spews more emissions than running slow ramping plants steadily.

But the renewable lobby doesn’t care. As long as the optics look “green” and the subsidies keep flowing, they’ll pat themselves on the back while torching the economy and, ironically, the environment.

The AI Revolution Meets a Starving Grid

Data centers are the new steel mills — except instead of molten metal, they devour electricity. A single hyperscale AI facility can pull as much juice as a large midwestern city.

The Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy warns that “data center demand is on track to outpace planned generation in multiple PJM states by the late 2020s.”

In plain English: the lights are going out.

Ohio’s industrial demand is about to spike just as our generation mix becomes dangerously fragile. PJM’s own reports show the majority of new capacity is gas — and while gas is better than wind or solar for reliability, our infrastructure is nowhere near ready to supply it during extreme cold. Winter Storm Elliott proved it: 70% of PJM’s forced outages were gas units.

The CRES “Competition” Scam

Ohio’s deregulation defenders point to our competitive market as proof of progress. In reality, the so-called “competition” is a shell game.

Certified Retail Electric Service (CRES) providers compete, alright — to see how creatively they can overcharge customers compared to the Standard Service Offer from the local utility.

A Journal of Critical Infrastructure Policy study found that retail choice “has consistently resulted in higher average bills for residential consumers”

— a polite academic way of saying we’ve been fleeced. This isn’t state-to-state competition; it’s middlemen multiplying costs.

True competition is when Ohio’s grid outperforms Pennsylvania’s, Indiana’s, or Michigan’s on cost and reliability, luring businesses to set up shop here. That will never happen under our current deregulation model.

What Ohio Must Do — Now

The clock is ticking, and our options are narrowing. Here’s the unvarnished prescription:

1. Reclaim Grid Control from PJM – The first step is simple: Ohio must have direct authority over generation planning, fuel mix, and reliability standards. PJM’s one-size-fits-all regionalism is killing our ability to plan long-term.

2. Keep Our Coal Plants Running – Retire coal too fast, and you’ll see blackouts and skyrocketing rates. We should not only halt closures but consider reopening shuttered coal units for the next 3–5 years to stabilize the grid.

3. Build Gas the Right Way – Expand pipeline infrastructure, mandate wellhead freeze-off protection, and fast-track advanced combined-cycle plants with on-site fuel storage.

4. Legalize 50-Mile Microgrids – Allow private generation to serve customers directly within a 50-mile radius, bypassing red tape and giving communities resilience.

5. Accelerate Advanced Nuclear – Partner with developers to deploy small modular reactors and liquid-fueled designs. Nuclear is the only carbon-free, weather-proof baseload power source that can meet industrial demand.

6. Back-to-Meter (BTM) Deals – Let large consumers cut direct agreements with generators and utilities, injecting real competition into pricing.

7. Re-Regulate or Redesign the Market – Either restore the vertically integrated utility model or create a market that prioritizes reliability, fuel security, and long-term cost stability over short-term spot prices.

The Stakes

If we stay the course, brace yourself for a one-two punch: collapsing industrial competitiveness and household budgets crushed by utility bills. The JGC Policy Brief on Electricity Markets puts it bluntly: Deregulated markets fail to incentivize long-lived, capital-intensive generation assets,” leading to chronic underinvestment and price volatility.

Ohio’s economic destiny is being hijacked by a market structure that rewards short-term arbitrage over long-term stability. The so-called green path being pushed by FERC and PJM is a road to brownouts, job losses, and economic decline.

We can change course — but only if we act with the urgency of a state that understands the difference between a commodity and a civilization-level necessity. Electricity isn’t just another product. It’s the lifeblood of industry, the foundation of modern life. Lose control over it, and you lose control over your future.

Ohio, it’s time to take the bull by the horns. The alternative isn’t just bad policy. It’s economic suicide.