First Energy Corp. said Wednesday that it’s giving up for now a proposal to freeze state mandates for energy efficiency.

In the state legislature’s lame duck session, the utility initiated discussions with lawmakers about freezing the efficiency levels at what has been achieved through 2012.

The proposal quickly set off opposition from energy efficiency businesses, state environmental groups and the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. They credit the standards with saving consumers $1 billion on electric bills since 2008. The proposal was the subject of a front-page story in Wednesday’s Dayton Daily News and Middletown Journal.

First Energy said it learned Wednesday that the legislature does not intend to introduce an amendment on energy efficiency in the next couple of weeks. Ohio Edison, which serves Springfield, is a subsidiary of FirstEnergy.

“We remain concerned that Ohio’s energy efficiency mandates will continue to impose significant costs on electric customers – costs that we all pay, directly and indirectly,” the company said in a prepared statement. “Considering Ohio’s aggressive mandates, FirstEnergy and others continue to believe policy makers should re-evaluate the current standards that were established years ago when the state’s economic situation and energy supply options were entirely different.”

Ohio’s Energy Efficiency Resource Standard requires that Ohio investor-owned utilities cut a cumulative 22 percent of electric consumption through energy efficiency efforts by 2025.

First Energy spokesman Doug Colafella said no decision has been made by the utility on when or whether to take up the issue again. “We strongly believe they should revisit the mandates, but we have to see how it plays out,” he said.

Jack Shaner, deputy director of the Ohio Environmental Council, said he expects First Energy to try again next year.

“If we can move the debate to the return on investment and all the benefits to consumers and to jobs from energy efficiency, we are confident we can win this fight. But it will be a big fight,” he said.