COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The pressure to repeal the law at the center of a $60 million federal bribery probe that led to the ouster of the former Ohio House speaker is reaching a boiling point.

The committee designated to address the repeal of House Bill 6 heard varying proponent testimony Wednesday from energy lobbying groups and state office representing consumers for the first time since the probe into the legislation designed to bailout two nuclear plants was revealed earlier this summer.

The House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight, created by the new Speaker Bob Cupp, has been the scene of rising tensions between Democratic and Republican lawmakers on how best to approach the fate of the now-tainted legislation.

Some testimony Wednesday called for the straight repeal of House Bill 6 while others warned throwing “the good out with the bad,” will have widespread ramification on Ohio electricity customers.

Witnesses from organizations like Industrial Energy Users, Ohio Manufacturers Association and Ohio Consumers’ Counsel gave testimony aligned with varying interests.

Jeff Jacobson, who testified on behalf of Ohio Consumers' Counsel, said the legislation left the burden of the two unprofitable nuclear plants near Cleveland and Toledo on average Ohioans.

While Kevin Murray, executive director of the Industrial Energy Users of Ohio, who had originally testified as a proponent of the bill last year, told the committee that repealing the bill without replacing it with similar subsidies will increase the cost for the state's electricity customers.

The bailout bill removed customer charges for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, but opponents of it have said energy efficiency programs that helped customers reduce their electric use more than pay for themselves.

Despite not being able to agree on whether the bill saves or costs ratepayers money, nearly every witness concurred the bailout of the nuclear plants is uneconomic and possibly unwarranted.

Federal prosecutors in July accused Speaker Cupp's predecessor, fellow GOP Rep. Larry Householder, and four others of shepherding energy company money for personal and political use as part of an effort to pass the legislation, then kill any attempt to repeal it at the polls.

Cupp and many of his Republican colleagues believe the legislation needs to be carefully untangled in order to anticipate and respond to the unintended consequences of the repeal.

But Democrats want a speedy repeal and say Republicans are unnecessarily delaying the process while a deadline looms.

If the House does not repeal the law by Oct. 1, a fee will be added to every electricity bill in the state starting Jan. 1 — directing over $150 million a year, through 2026, to the nuclear plants.

While FirstEnergy Corp., whose former subsidiaries owned the plants, have denied wrongdoing and have not been criminally charged, federal investigators say the company secretly funneled millions to secure the $1 billion legislative bailout for the two nuclear plants then operated by an independently controlled subsidiary called FirstEnergy Solutions.

The other option is an emergency House vote before the end of the year. As of this week, 58 of 99 House members have signed on to cosponsor bills that would repeal House Bill 6.

Republican Rep. Laura Lanese, who introduced one of the repeal bills days after the federal affidavit was released, said she would vote in favor of an emergency ruling in order to “regain the trust of Ohioans.”

“While some of my Republican colleagues think that they could separate that corruption from the good policy of the bill, I don’t think that’s the case,“ Lanese said. “I think it goes to the heart of the integrity of the legislation and that we should kill the bill and start fresh.”

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Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.