COLUMBUS — A revised bill that would shore up the state’s two nuclear power plants along with two coal-fired power plants cleared an Ohio House committee Thursday afternoon along party lines.

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee adopted House Bill 6 by an 8-5 vote, with all of the committee’s Republicans voting for it and Democrats opposing it. The bill will go the full House for consideration.

Under the bill, consumers would pay 50 cents a month with the fee rising to $1 a month on their utility bills for six years to create the Ohio Clean Air Program.

The fee is expected to raise nearly $200 million a year, with most of that money going to support FirstEnergy Solutions, the owner of the financially ailing Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants along Lake Erie. FirstEnergy Solutions, spun off by Akron-based FirstEnergy, says the plants will close in two years without help.

Backers of the legislation say the bill, though, would save money for consumers by eliminating surcharges on bills that go toward paying for energy efficiency programs and renewable energy.

“If it gets passed, all of our bills are going to go down,” said Rep. Nino Vitale, R-Urbana, the committee chairman. “This is a significant rate reduction.”

He said the surcharges are running about $4.50 a month and are on track to increase to $8 to $9 a month in a couple of years.

“One of the features I really like about this bill is that in six years it’s all over. All of it goes away. Nobody gets anything,” Vitale said.

While FirstEnergy Solutions stands to gain the most money, other utilities figure to benefit as well, including American Electric Power. Those companies with long-term renewable contracts to comply with renewable energy standards will be able to apply for funding to recover the cost of those contracts currently in place.

Another change would allow a referendum in townships regarding proposed wind projects.

AEP praised the bill, saying in a letter to the Ohio House that it will allow the company “to make investments that our customers have been asking us to provide.”

Democrats disagreed.

“It’s a giant step in the wrong direction,” said state Rep. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, a member of the committee.

The coal company that would receive the additional funding, Ohio Valley Electric, is owned by the state’s major utilities. It operates the Kyger Creek plant in Cheshire in southern Ohio, which went online in 1955 and can generate about 1,100 megawatts, and Clifty Creek in Madison, Indiana, also started in 1955 and with a capacity of about 1,300 megawatts.

Columbus-based American Electric Power owns 43% of the plants, more than any other utility. Other owners include Buckeye Power, which serves rural electric cooperative utilities, and several other large utilities, such as Duke Energy, FirstEnergy Solutions and Dayton Power & Light.

The revised version of the bill would formalize a current billing practice. If the plants sell electricity at a cost below what it takes to produce, AEP and the other utilities are allowed to recover that cost from customers. If the plants sell electricity at a profit, customers get a credit on their bill.

The bill would cap the monthly fee at $2.50 for residential customers. The provision would run through 2030.

The bill was originally touted as a measure to boost support for carbon dioxide-free energy production, but wind and solar projects no longer would be eligible for financial support.

Earlier Thursday, House Democrats rolled out their own clean energy bill that has a goal of the state getting half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050, and it would keep the energy efficiency standards already in place under existing law.

“H.B. 6 is a total flip-flop that started by calling itself a clean air bill and evolved to be a corporate welfare bill that bails out a failing Indiana coal plant,” said Assistant Minority Leader Kristin Boggs, D-Columbus.