As Introduced
136th General Assembly
Regular Session S. B. No. 151
2025-2026
Senator Wilkin
To amend section 4929.02 and to enact sections
4929.51, 4929.52, 4929.53, 4929.55, 4929.57, and
4929.59 of the Revised Code to allow for
competitive retail natural gas service suppliers
to offer carbon offsets to customers.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That section 4929.02 be amended and sections
4929.51, 4929.52, 4929.53, 4929.55, 4929.57, and 4929.59 of the
Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:
Sec. 4929.02. (A) It is the policy of this state to,
throughout this state:
(1) Promote the availability to consumers of adequate,
reliable, and reasonably priced natural gas services and goods;
(2) Promote the availability of unbundled and comparable
natural gas services and goods that provide wholesale and retail
consumers with the supplier, price, terms, conditions, and
quality options they elect to meet their respective needs;
(3) Promote diversity of natural gas supplies and
suppliers, by giving consumers effective choices over the
selection of those supplies and suppliers;
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(4) Encourage innovation and market access for cost-
effective supply- and demand-side natural gas services and
goods;
(5) Encourage cost-effective and efficient access to
information regarding the operation of the distribution systems
of natural gas companies in order to promote effective customer
choice of natural gas services and goods;
(6) Recognize the continuing emergence of competitive
natural gas markets through the development and implementation
of flexible regulatory treatment;
(7) Promote an expeditious transition to the provision of
natural gas services and goods in a manner that achieves
effective competition and transactions between willing buyers
and willing sellers to reduce or eliminate the need for
regulation of natural gas services and goods under Chapters
4905. and 4909. of the Revised Code;
(8) Promote effective competition in the provision of
natural gas services and goods by avoiding subsidies flowing to
or from regulated natural gas services and goods;
(9) Ensure that the risks and rewards of a natural gas
company's offering of nonjurisdictional and exempt services and
goods do not affect the rates, prices, terms, or conditions of
nonexempt, regulated services and goods of a natural gas company
and do not affect the financial capability of a natural gas
company to comply with the policy of this state specified in
this section;
(10) Facilitate the state's competitiveness in the global
economy;
(11) Facilitate additional choices for the supply of
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natural gas for residential consumers, including aggregation;
(12) Promote an alignment of natural gas company interests
with consumer interest in energy efficiency and energy
conservation;
(13) Ensure that environmental marketing claims, whether
explicit or implied, are substantiated by competent and reliable
evidence so as not to deceive or mislead consumers about the
environmental impact of carbon offset products;
(14) Ensure that accurate and useful information about the
environmental impact of carbon offset products is made available
to consumers.
(B) The public utilities commission and the office of the
consumers' counsel shall follow the policy specified in this
section in exercising their respective authorities relative to
sections 4929.03 to 4929.30 of the Revised Code.
(C) Nothing in Chapter 4929. of the Revised Code shall be
construed to alter the public utilities commission's
construction or application of division (E) of section 4905.03
of the Revised Code.
Sec. 4929.51. As used in sections 4929.50 to 4929.59 of
the Revised Code:
(A) "Carbon offset" means an instrument certified by a
carbon offset registry that represents one metric ton of
greenhouse gas removed from the atmosphere by any method of
mitigation including: planting and maintaining trees that absorb
carbon dioxide and providing long-term forest management,
capturing and burning methane gas produced by landfills or farms
before the methane enters the atmosphere, and improving energy
efficiency to reduce energy use and lower the associated carbon
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dioxide emissions.
(B) "Carbon offset registry" means a nationally recognized
entity that engages primarily in the development of carbon
offset standards, methodologies, program registration,
verification oversight, and issuance of carbon offsets, whether
for profit or not.
(C) "Double counting" means a retail natural gas supplier
does either of the following:
(1) Sells the same carbon offset to two or more customers;
(2) Attributes the carbon offset produced from a single
method of mitigation to two or more methods of mitigation.
Sec. 4929.52. A retail natural gas supplier that intends
to establish a voluntary carbon offset program shall do the
following:
(A) Enter into an agreement with one or more carbon offset
registries that can provide the following:
(1) Information to identify carbon offset projects;
(2) Serial numbers for each carbon offset credit generated
by each project;
(3) A system to identify the original owner that generated
the carbon offset credit;
(4) A system to check the status of a carbon offset
credit.
(B) Submit a notice to the public utilities commission
stating its intention to begin a voluntary carbon offset program
that allows all customer classes to enroll and purchase carbon
offsets to offset any emissions that are the result of the
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As Introduced
customer's consumption and use of natural gas services.
Sec. 4929.53. (A) A notice to begin a voluntary carbon
offset program that a retail natural gas supplier submits to the
public utilities commission pursuant to section 4929.52 of the
Revised Code shall include the following:
(1) A copy of an agreement between the retail natural gas
supplier and one or more carbon offset registries that at a
minimum states that the carbon offsets being sold meet the
necessary criteria to be considered a carbon offset and that the
registry or registries will conduct regular verification to
assure that the offsets are being applied correctly by the
supplier;
(2) A description of the types of carbon offsets the
supplier will offer to customers and a description of how the
supplier will prevent double counting.
(B) The public utilities commission shall maintain a
publicly available record of each notice described in division
(A) of this section once the commission has verified that the
supplier is working with the carbon offset registry or
registries it lists in the notice.
Sec. 4929.55. No voluntary carbon offset program offered
by a retail natural gas supplier under sections 4929.52 to
4929.59 of the Revised Code shall require a natural gas company
to incur costs related to the program. No such carbon offset
program shall require customers who do not participate in the
program to incur any costs related to the program.
Sec. 4929.57. A retail natural gas supplier's voluntary
carbon offset program under sections 4929.52 to 4929.59 of the
Revised Code shall include procedures to allow for customers to
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opt in and out of the program.
Sec. 4929.59. (A) The public utilities commission, at its
discretion, may conduct an audit of a retail natural gas
supplier's voluntary carbon offset program under sections
4929.52 to 4929.59 of the Revised Code to ensure the carbon
offsets are being applied correctly to a customer's account and
to ensure that no costs incurred under the program are charged
to, or collected from, the natural gas company or customers who
do not participate in the program.
(B) A retail natural gas supplier that is subject to an
audit as described in division (A) of this section shall provide
the commission any information it determines is necessary to
complete the audit.
Section 2. That existing section 4929.02 of the Revised
Code is hereby repealed.
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