HB303 would have established a statewide "Community Energy Program" to encourage development of local energy-generation projects—including solar, biomass, natural gas, and other small-scale facilities — and allow residents and businesses to subscribe to. The bill amends and adds sections to the Ohio Revised Code to set up the program's structure, define how electricity is measured, and let the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio regulate participating community energy facilities.

The Ohio State House of Representatives passed HB303 on November 19, 2025 by a vote of 77 to 8. We have assigned pluses to the nays because this bill, despite its free-market rhetoric, expands government control over energy production and distribution. By creating a new state-designed program, defining eligible energy sources, and empowering regulators to oversee and shape participation, HB303 moves electricity generation further under centralized oversight rather than leaving it to voluntary market competition. Such state-directed energy planning embraces the United Nations' Agenda 2030, invites regulatory favoritism, distorts price signals, and concentrates greater authority in unelected bureaucracies—undermining property rights and a truly free, competitive energy market.