CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Legislature passed Tuesday a $12 million tax break for the Pleasants Power Station, allowing it to potentially stay open past its 2022 closing date.

The House of Delegates passed House Bill 207, granting Pleasants Power Station an exemption from state business and occupation taxes, Tuesday morning in a 77-5 vote with 18 either absent or not voting. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday afternoon 28-0 with six absent or not voting.

HB 207 was added to the special session call Friday by Gov. Jim Justice after discussions with FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) officials and legislative leaders last week.

Pleasants Power Station and the Longview Power Station in Monongalia County are the only merchant power stations in West Virginia. Both plants sell their electricity on the wholesale market instead of retail customers and are exempt from Public Service Commission regulation.

Longview is already exempt from business and occupation taxes. Pleasants Power and Longview are two of eight power plants in the state. The others pass on the business and occupation tax liability to ratepayers.

FES believes HB 207 will give Pleasants Power a level playing field.

The Senate quickly passed the bill Tuesday with almost no debate. State Sen. Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, said the power plant does a lot of good in his region.

“It’s the largest plant in a small county,” Clements said. “The loss to this county would be a very dangerous thing for the viability of the Ohio Valley. We’re leveling the playing field. Let’s keep this plant open. If the plant closes, we lose the money anyway. Let’s preserve those jobs.”

The plant was scheduled to shut down in January as a result of the bankruptcy of FES and FirstEnergy Generation — spinoffs of FirstEnergy Corp. The deactivation notice was extended until May 2022.

Once FES emerges from bankruptcy, FirstEnergy subsidiary Allegheny Energy Supply will transfer full ownership of Pleasants Power to FES.

While support for HB 207 was overwhelming in the House, the body debated the bill for over an hour Tuesday morning. The bill was amended to move the bill’s effective date up from July 1, 2020, to Jan. 1, 2020. Another amendment, which failed, would have limited the tax break exemption to a five-year period.

“The problem we’ve got is that we’re considering this, a bill that was apparently presented to the governor on Tuesday of last week,” said Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, who proposed the amendment. “It was presented in a phone call to the Democratic caucus on Wednesday. It was not a bill until Sunday night at 8 p.m. and the bill was on first reading yesterday.”

“The problem we’ve got with something rushed through like this, it feels like logrolling,” Rowe continued. “We end up with is a change in our tax code without studying it.”

Two members of the Monongalia County delegation where Longview is located — Democrats Evan Hansen and Barbara Fleischauer — spoke out against HB 207 and giving Pleasants Power the same tax break exemption Longview has.

“I’m very skeptical of in two days’ time evaluating the assertions (FES) made to us,” Fleischauer said. “Once we pass this tax break we’re going to have a line. We’re going to have to give out tickets for all the companies that want to get tax breaks based on the fact that we’re giving this one out.”

“We’re in the middle of a transition on where we get our electricity from,” Hansen said. “We in the legislature have a responsibility to acknowledge that and do what we can to manage that transition so we have a just transition…so we’re not just giving tax break after tax break when these plants close.”

Del. David Kelly, R-Tyler, represents a portion of northern Pleasants County and grew up in Pleasants County, later becoming the sheriff. He urged his fellow lawmakers to think about the families that could be affected if HB 207 didn’t pass.

“Pleasants Power is one of the single highest taxpayers in one of the smallest counties in this state. That puts things into perspective,” Kelly said. “There are families that will be directly impacted by a closure such as this.”

“We have a chance today to make history,” Kelly continued. “We have an opportunity today to do something that we can all leave here feeling better about. We saved some jobs. We made it possible for families to live in the comfort they are accustomed to living. Rarely do we as a body of 100 have an opportunity to do something in a bipartisan manner that’s as big as an issue as this.”

The bill now goes to the desk of Justice for his signature.