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Immigrants in Ohio struggling with dread and despondency.

And this brutal cold will bring shocking electricity bills to Ohio ratepayers.

We'll try to shed some light on that this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Immigrant populations across the country are fearful, sad and uncertain.

And that's especially true for people of Somali descent in central Ohio.

The fears come after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in December resulted in ten people arrested, with immigration advocates saying it also resulted in more than 200 people detained, including two U.S.

citizens and immigrants with pending immigration cases.

Work permit or other legal authorization to be in the United States.

But people of Somali descent are also struggling with the fallout from fraud in publicly funded programs.

In Minnesota.

And those rumors trickling down to Ohio social media influencers pushing unfounded allegations have targeted Somali run childcare, affecting businesses as well.

I spoke last week with Representative Munira Abdullahi, the first Muslim woman and the first Somali American in the Ohio legislature.

Yeah.

I mean, I think just like most immigrant communities right now, it's been very difficult.

There's a lot of fear is a lot of uncertainty.

There's a lot of sadness, right?

And I guess, shock at a lot of, most immigrants, came to this country to to look for a better life.

They came here searching for the American dream, and, we're we're brought here with a promise.

Right?

And that promises is truly been taken away, and it's breaking apart.

And so there's a lot of, Yeah, a lot of all those emotions are happening right now.

Let's talk specifically about the effect of these unfounded allegations about fraud and child care, which those who presented them without evidence based on fraud, that actually was happening in publicly funded programs in Minnesota.

But there's been no evidence of that kind of fraud happening There has been no evidence of fraud, that kind of fraud happening in Ohio.

I think we have a really robust system of checks and balances.

And also it's just doesn't it defies logic to blame a whole entire population for the actions of a few people.

And so it's been very harmful.

We have, you know, these, influencers and YouTubers, coming to these daycares, even sometimes threatening people.

Like, there was a video that I saw that was very, shocking where a gentleman was asking, is this door bulletproof?

Let's find out.

And there's children inside.

And so it's just so scary.

And I we had a meeting yesterday with a couple of these, business owners and, the city attorney's office, and they were just telling their stories, and they were talking about how, you know, parents are too scared to bring their kids to the daycare.

Daycare owners are thinking of shutting down because there's some of them are having repeat offenders or they're coming, coming, coming.

And they're terrified of coming to work or even, you know, putting these children in danger.

And so it's very harmful.

And then we have my colleagues in the state House who are, elevating some of these words, like Republican colleagues were having press conferences on these, unfounded all allegations when we again, they're unfounded.

The governor himself has come out and talked about how, you know, these these these these, allegations are unfounded.

We have a system in place.

We have, you know, people who are, working very hard to make sure that doesn't happen in Ohio.

And it hasn't been happening.

So it's been very frustrating, to say the least.

There are around 60,000 Somalis in Columbus.

Do I have that number right?

Approximately I don't I don't know the exact number otherwise.

Ever done like a proper census on them?

Well, the Trump administration has withdrawn temporary protected status from Somalis in the US with this statement from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Country conditions in Somalia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law's requirement for temporary protected status.

So what does the end of TPS mean for Somalis in central Ohio?

In Ohio in general?

Yeah, it means families breaking apart.

I mean, I had someone call me yesterday and asking, what's going to happen to her husband, right?

What's going to happen to the father of her children or their children?

And so it's going to mean families breaking apart that I mean, people who have built a life here, who've been here for years, sometimes decades.

You know who who, who have their family here, who have friends, who have neighbors, you know, a workplace, a life, a business.

They will have to return to somewhere where they no longer know it's not home for them anymore.

This is home.

And so it is very heartbreaking, to say the least.

The TBS status started back in 1991.

So you have people who potentially are under that status who've been here for decades now, right?

Right.

And they consider themselves Americans.

They've been here for decades.

They've built again.

They've built life here.

Right?

They have businesses.

They have kids who are American, who don't know anywhere but home what what's going to happen to them?

And so it's very, it is very sad.

And the fact that, you know, the process is so difficult where you have people who've been here since 1991 who are not citizens here, who have been trying to become citizens, is also very frustrated with that status and with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents already having been in Columbus once last month.

Is the Somali community preparing for more of of that kind of action?

Yeah, I think there's been a lot of preparation for the Somali community with, you know, all the other immigrant communities in Ohio, and Columbus for, more and more ice ages to come.

And they they've been here, right?

They've been here since, in heavy numbers since November, December.

And so people have been staying at home.

A lot of folks have not been going to work, but there's been amazing community systems have been popping up like rapid response systems, and folks have been delivering groceries to their neighbors and, you know, helping them, you know, taking kids to school because now we know that Ice is waiting outside of schools, for children in times.

And so there's been a lot of community support that's been popping up.

But people are definitely scared and they're preparing and there's continuing to prepare.

Stay ready.

Really, there have been a lot of ugly, terribly racist things said about Somalis from President Trump on down.

What do you want people to know about the Somali community, though?

Our community, like any other, and that we love our neighbors and our friends and that we love the country that we live in.

Somali people are just like everyone else.

Like, it's just crazy.

I have to say this.

I didn't think I'd have to just come here to find, like, a whole group of people.

But, you know, we're just like everyone else, right?

And and I urge people to look past, dangerous rhetoric and hateful rhetoric and just go to your neighbors.

I go talk to them.

If you have a Somali neighbor, go to Somalia restaurant.

Amazing food.

And just immerse yourself in community.

And I tell people like, it's time to touch grass.

We it off the internet a little bit because it is getting really scary.

It's getting very hateful and just that's just the Somalis, but a lot of different communities out there.

And so I urge people to to really be in community as much as possible and talk to real people.

Columbus and Ohio in general used to there was this reputation of being welcoming to refugees to people from other countries.

Do you feel that that's changed at all?

I think so, I think Columbus is still welcoming.

Like I feel the love I feel.

I feel it even more than ever, honestly.

I know the internet shows, different face, but when I go outside, my.

I feel like the love is even stronger.

Like my neighbors and my friends are trying to, I guess, overcompensate for their for the vile things are said online, but they're people are showing up like we had a community potluck, to support, the Somali businesses and communities.

And it was beautiful.

So many people came out and most of them non Somali.

There's only like two Somalis.

And so I think it's still welcoming.

It's still loving.

And it doesn't reflect what the internet is saying for people who are not immigrants.

There's been the question of what can they do to support people who are potentially losing TPS status, who are on the receiving end of some of these terrible things.

What can people do to join your local groups, as a lot of nonprofits, that are supporting immigrants like Chris, our helpers has been really amazing.

They're in my district and they've been doing a lot of, they have a their food pantry, and they've been serving everyone, you know, not just immigrants, but they've been doing the food deliveries or grocery deliveries of people who are too scared to leave their house.

So join these local organizations and groups, speak out.

You know, there's a protest today at the state House, 1 p.m., just standing up for our immigrant neighbors and for each other.

And for people who are being terrorized by ice and also, you know, try to get away from this, the harmful rhetoric and immerse yourself in real facts.

Right?

There's so much that is happening.

There's so much misinformation.

And there is this, pointed agenda to direct people's anger towards immigrants when really there is a real problem happening, in the administration, with corporations that are making people's lives harder.

Right.

And that there's a deflection of responsibility to immigrants who, like, we do not have a responsibility of what's happening to people's lives.

Why groceries are so expensive, why expenses are so high.

It is not immigrants fault.

So I also urge people to immerse themselves in facts and, share those facts with people.

And that is, I think that that's going to be really helpful to fight against this hate.

I think we're going to hear that message a lot from Democrats coming up in this election year.

Do you expect that the issue in general is going to be something that state lawmakers are going to be taking up since, again, it is an election year that you're going to have to be talking about this and hearing some, some unpleasant things as lawmakers come back.

Well, I mean, I always say, I hope not, but I really hope not, because it's, you know, it's a federal issue.

And we want to support our, our, our choice as much as we can.

I don't know what we can't what we can do in the state House.

And a lot of the issues are where we're focusing on in the statehouse are things that are affecting people's daily lives, like, you know, prescription drug prices, our school funding formula, which is still unconstitutional.

So all these issues that we really want to focus on make people's lives better, we don't want to focus on, we don't want to be forced to discuss culture war issues.

And when it comes to the issue of Ice, that is a federal issue.

So we're still talking to our Congress members, and we're we're we're pleading to them to do something about this, in the state House.

I know a lot some of my colleagues will be bringing it up, again, as a really a campaign issue.

It's it's something that we're not supposed we we don't have the jurisdiction the statehouse to do anything about to be, you know, legislating on ice or immigration.

But I know some of my colleagues are going to be using it as a campaign talking points.

My Republican colleagues, unfortunately.

But I or like, I really want us to focus on the issues that we're supposed to be focusing on.

The state House again, school funding, prescription drug pricing, our streets, our infrastructure.

But that's probably not going to happen.

I can only dream if there is one bill that would require schools and hospitals to report on the immigration status of students and patients, are you.

Yes.

That very concerning.

There's that bill.

There's also a bill I think, that would allow them to enter hospitals as well.

And there's a bill that would, force cities to like to, cooperate or else they would lose state funding.

So those are the, the, the particular, bills that would be very harmful.

And working with some, local activists and organizations to push back against those bills when they come back in the state House, so far, they haven't really moved much.

There's also one bill, a hospital, one that would ban immigrants or an immigrant from owning land in Ohio.

It's crazy.

And so right now, those bills are effectively they're paused.

And I'm, I'm really hoping that this increased pressure, increased, temperature.

Does it bring that energy back to the state House where they're moving those bills again, and the Ohio State House, we're always constantly trying to stop bad things from happening.

We don't ever have time to do good things.

So, that's where we're at, unfortunately.

But I'm hoping those bills stay where they're at and don't move.

Great.

And anything else you want to add?

I mean, that's what I, I tell people to stay safe.

Like it's it's also we have a very big storm coming up.

So I mean people have so much to so many things to worry about as they stay informed, stay safe and really just stay aware of your neighbors and one another.

I always urge at this time, the most important thing is to be grounded in community, and to help one another and kind of like a little bit of kindness goes a long way.

About 15,000 Haitians in the Springfield area are also bracing for the loss of temporary protected status on February 4th, as ordered by the Trump administration.

Businesses in the area have said they're concerned about the impact on the economy, since many of those residents are their employees.

Much of the country will be paying for the huge snowstorm and bitter cold that hit in the last week, closing schools and businesses, canceling flights and keeping people inside their homes.

And that will almost certainly mean much higher heating bills, which were already approaching eye popping levels.

AEP, which says customer costs for power generation supply, have soared 112% in the last five years.

Has asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to raise rates by about $4 a month, or nearly $50 a year.

The Puco approved First Energy's request to reset distribution rates to increase their annual revenues by approximately $34 million, though FirstEnergy had asked for $190 million.

Duke energy also recently raised its residential electric rates.

I talked with two experts on ballooning utility costs in the fall.

Jennifer French is the chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

It's my understanding that when the electricity market was deregulated in 1999, and then the regulatory structure of the Puco was changed in 2008, the goal in the hope was that this would bring lower prices and innovation because of competition.

That does not appear to be what has happened, at least when you look at the, people's people's bills.

Why not?

Well, I actually would say that, you know, in Ohio, we are we're number 26 of 51, as far as electricity prices.

So we're right there in the middle.

We are less than all within our surrounding states.

You know, so energy prices do go up and do come down.

And right now we're seeing an unprecedented, amount of growth in that area with data centers and things like that.

So I would say that we actually have really good prices in Ohio.

Are they higher right now than they were two years ago?

They are.

And so, you know, we're working on looking at different ways, working with the, you know, utilities, the auctions, things like that.

The capacity auction that PJM held, certainly increased exponentially.

Again, supply and demand, you have different states that are have different state policies than we do, that might be taking baseload generation offline, instead of putting more online.

So, you know, in Ohio, that's one of the things that House Bill 15 is doing.

I've been at the PTO for four and a half years, and, for four of those years, we really were not seeing any gas fired generation applications because I also cite, I chair the power siting board, too.

So we are in charge of siting generation units, and we hadn't seen any.

It was all renewables, which are great, but we need it all.

And so at any rate since January.

So for whatever, you know, House Bill 15 I think passed in April maybe but it allows it expanded.

The opportunities for behind the meter generation and at the power siting board, we've already approved, I want to say maybe 400MW of behind the meter generation, and we have another 1200 roughly in the queue.

So hopefully with all that coming in, that helps to stabilize the pricing as well.

Know when you have more supply coming in and that can lower the price, is what you're saying.

Basically, I want to ask you about data centers and other high tech facilities, especially Intel and Meta and some of the things that we're seeing in central Ohio.

But around the state, they're not only using a lot of power, but they're expected to use a lot of power in the future.

Are Ohioans paying in advance for the use of that power, even if it never happens?

So what we've done, I'll just use AP because they're the utility that's done this and this is a pending case in front of me.

So I'm just going to give you a wide net.

Basically what happened is that AEP said, hey, we're not sure what is real and what is not.

And, you know, if you're going to build out this transmission system to support these users, high consumers of electricity, we need to make sure that those costs are not borne by ratepayers.

And so the the data center tariff puts more of that cost on the data center, specifically so that if there so that to avoid really stranded costs later if in fact there isn't the materialization of this that we expect.

So Economist and Ohio State University public policy professor Noah Dermody has researched this, finding that fewer bidders are showing up to compete at retail auctions that set the price of electricity generation for consumers, driving those costs up from $28 per megawatt day two years ago to $329 this summer.

A lot of factors at play that explain that, they changed what counts as de rating or how they de-escalate the value of a power plant if it's an intermittent resource or not.

They took, some load forecasts.

There's some controversy about how they address load growth from things like data centers and AI.

So there's both supply side and demand side shocks that contributed to that, to that price cap or to that price increase up to the price cap.

But the short and long of it is that consumers are seeing a significant price increase because of that capacity, market increase.

And Ohio has brought in several data centers and other high tech facilities like this.

The state has really gone after some of those.

They sure have.

And, that has resulted in forecasts that show a real increase in demand, especially in the central Ohio area.

So this is a setup that could get worse over time.

That's right.

Yeah.

That's right.

So most of the data centers that are projected are here in central Ohio.

AEP is, forecasting a 50% load growth by 2030.

So in the next five years, we're seeing a 50% increase in load if AP's forecasts are accurate.

The concern that I have about those load forecasts is that, the, you know, the Chips act is in question.

Many of the, the subsidies that would bring in those data centers and those chip manufacturers, are in question or are, you know, we're not sure.

And many of the contracts for that additional load, have resulted in, kind of a tenuous demand.

We don't know if those data centers are going to come here.

We don't know if those data centers are going to open.

They're forecasted and projected.

But as I understand it, the contracts have not yet been been signed.

What that means is that the projected load from those data centers is factoring into our prices today, but unfortunately, we don't know if that low is actually going to be realized.

So consumers are paying for that projected load growth.

Consumers are paying for all of the infrastructure that has to go in place to be prepared for that massive increase in data centers.

But the data centers are not yet here.

And so the question is, are consumers seeing sticker shock because of data centers and AI that has not yet come?

And the answer is absolutely yes.

One of the other things that factors into this is the supply side, where you've got the retirements of several coal fired or fossil fuel burning plants, and they haven't been replaced with anything else.

Right?

That's correct.

So we've had a lot of retirements, and the way it works, in our wholesale market, our wholesale market, as I mentioned, PJM is responsible for reliability of our of our network, of our of our generation resources.

And they have an interconnection queue.

It's basically a line for new power plants to jump on.

And, and produce electricity on our network.

And that interconnection queue has a big backlog.

They face stiff criticism from a variety of stakeholders in these markets for their delay in getting new power plants online.

Another downside here on the supply side is that, much of the the resources that have been retiring are baseload resources.

Those are coal resources that are stable, reliable, low price resources.

And they're being replaced with intermittent resources.

A lot of coal, excuse me, a lot of, solar and a lot of wind.

And as a result of that, we're seeing intermittent resources that are unstable with fluctuating prices replacing stable baseload resources.

So consumers are seeing price increases do not only to, demand side issues, but also supply side issues as well.

And of course, consumers who are looking at higher energy bills are going, okay, all that's great, but what do I what can I do?

And quite often people are told to shop around, look at the apples to apples to apples comparison site and that will help you lower your bill.

But you found that that's not necessarily the case.

Well, so that's right.

So, through our research, group at Ohio State, the Energy Markets and Policy group, we did a very large study.

We went back ten years and we looked at every daily retail choice offer filed by every major competitive retail electric service supplier across the state.

And we compared those rates both to each other and, to the standard service offer the, the price that consumers would receive if they didn't shop and they just did nothing and stayed with their utilities default price.

And what we found, interestingly, was that most of those offers historically have been above the standard service offer.

They weren't exactly worth, consumers time in shopping.

Through that study, we've also seen, unfortunately, a lot of gimmicks.

We've seen some really unfortunate things happen to consumers, particularly vulnerable consumers like the elderly.

We had a research subject in Pennsylvania recently, an older woman, she thought she was on a very favorable rate.

We looked at her bill.

We collect her bill at, you know, subjects bills as part of the study.

And we looked at her bill and she was paying an additional $139 per month.

Add her on her electric bill.

We reported it.

They opened up an investigation, and hopefully they're going to get her her money back.

But her case is not, you know, an isolated case.

We're seeing numerous cases of untoward activity in these retail choice markets.

So not only over a ten year period do we see that those retail choice, suppliers are not really pricing electricity very, you know, competitively.

But we're also seeing a lot of gimmick, gimmicks and scams out there among among those craft suppliers.

French agrees on the need to shop the Apples to Apples website carefully, but says consumers can move the needle down on those huge bills.

I think there's probably a lot that goes into that and a lot of variables.

I know I have the thermostat that we control, through our phones and use that, I think the less energy that people are using, the better for all of us.

Probably.

So it can't hurt.

But.

But is it really enough?

I mean, when people are looking at big electric bills, is that going to be enough or are there other things that people could be doing?

I think the energy efficiency things and that runs the gamut to right.

Re insulating your house, changing out your windows, smart meters, all those things, smart thermostats, all those things.

I don't know exactly per household how much that saves.

But again, the less you're using, the less you're spending.

When I ask you about the Apples to Apples website that Puco operates, which allows people to compare, for electric, for gas, that there was this report from Ohio State that said that it really doesn't result in savings to consumers.

So I want to ask you about that.

And and where you stand on that.

Sure.

First of all, you raise a really good point.

So, it is incredibly important that people educate themselves on this topic because there are a lot of different programs out there, and we do have them all on our Apples to Apples website, on our website.

And it's called Apples to Apples.

And what it does is it lays out, you know, is it a variable rate?

Is that a fixed rate?

Is it, green energy?

Is it not so variable?

Right.

So it it lays that out so people can go in and look at and look at it.

We also have our call center.

And our call center explains kind of how that works.

If somebody is confused, The Puco issued a special reconnect order that runs through April.

It capped the cost to reestablish disconnected service at $175, plus a reconnect charge.

That can't be more than $36.

And that is it for this week.

My colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Media, thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State news.org or find us online by searching State of Ohio Show.

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And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter, right, is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter.

Right.

Com Porter Wright inspired every day.

You know, Ohio Education Association representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at o h e talk.