Now, in other news, a bill that supporters say would protect Kentucky's electric grid and help the coal industry generated a lot of discussion on the House floor today.

Senate Bill four would prohibit the Public Service Commission from allowing utility companies to retire coal fired power plants unless several conditions are met.

Now, here are those conditions.

First, the utility must replace the retired unit with new electric generating capacity.

Second, ratepayers wouldn't have to pay for the new unit.

And finally, retiring a unit can't be the result of financial incentives from the federal government.

Representative Teacher Tina Wolski, a Democrat from Louisville, said the bill would have some unintended consequences, including negatively impacting Kentucky's ability to explore other energy sources.

Without the ability to consider the federal incentives available to offset the cost of building nuclear generation.

No Kentucky Energy Company will be able to build a nuclear plant.

It simply won't be economic.

Representative Chris Fugate of Eastern Kentucky said electric rates for his constituents just keep going up.

And he said utility companies are charging customers a fee for demolishing coal fired power plants.

He attributed those costs to increased federal regulations.

They're taking away our livelihood.

They're adding on to the to the to the to the bills and and the cost of living.

We don't have the cheapest cost of living in in in East Kentucky.

It probably cost more to live in East Kentucky than those in Lexington.

We got people's power bills running 11 1200 dollars a month, more than more than their house payment.

The Kentucky Coal Association praised the passage of Senate Bill four.

In a statement, Tucker Davis, head of the Kca, said, quote, It has been obvious for some time that the continued closing of the state's coal fired power plants is bad policy and something had to be done to protect the long term stability of the electric grid and, quote, Senate Bill four is now headed to the governor's desk.