AEP
Ohio senators introduce bills to prevent another bribery scandal from happening
To prevent an even bigger and more embarrassing bribery scandal from taking place, Ohio lawmakers introduced two bills to stop public corruption. When a consumer pays their utility bill — it’s not just for their lights. Part of what they pay for is for utility companies’ political endeavors. Ohio learned the hard way that this […]
Judge slams former Ohio regulator for not giving details about how he spent $4.3M in utility money
FirstEnergy conceded it was a bribe, but its former executives and former PUCO Chairman Sam Randazzo said it wasn't. Either way, a judge in a federal class-action case is again ordering Randazzo to fork over documents — including emails — addressing how he spent the $4.3 million he got from FirstEnergy in 2019 just as he was about to take the helm of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, the agency tasked with regulating FirstEnergy.
Manufacturers, consumers blast plan to make ratepayers subsidize charging stations
The number of electric vehicles on U.S. roadways is expected to ramp up dramatically in the coming years, and with it the number of charging stations will have to grow as well. Now groups representing Ohio utility consumers and manufacturers are trying to kill a plan that would force ratepayers to finance the electricity infrastructure […]
Ohio SOS gives yet another reason to make it a lot harder for voters to amend Constitution
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Wednesday offered another rationale for making it much more difficult for voters to amend the Ohio Constitution. Now he’s saying it’s needed to fight a possible power grab like one that grew out of a massive bribery and money-laundering scandal. But LaRose didn’t mention in his op-ed that […]
Environmental groups call on regulator to audit coal subsidies in corrupt utility bailout
Correction: The Public Utilities Commission responded to a question for this story on Wednesday. It has been updated. Ohio’s utility regulator played a central role in a historic bribery and money laundering scandal. Now environmental groups are calling on it to perform legally mandated audits of hundreds of millions in coal subsidies that were part […]
FirstEnergy asks for more time, more money on purchase of coal plant
Akron-based FirstEnergy on Friday blew through a regulator’s deadline for a report — and it told the regulator that it needed to rush through a $36 million annual rate increase in a matter of weeks if it wanted the analysis to go forward. The West Virginia Public Service Commission on Dec. 30 ordered the Ohio […]
AEP doesn’t have much to say about its support for corrupt utility bailout
Columbus-based utility giant AEP wasn’t at the epicenter of a historic bribery and money-laundering scandal in 2019. But it also wasn’t very far away as a corrupt deal was hatched in the Ohio Capitol to use $61 million in bribes to pass a $1.3 billion bailout. The name of the nation’s sixth-largest electric utility came […]
Analysis: Bribery scandal shows how Ohio politics is polluted with dark money
CINCINNATI — A utility bailout at the center of a massive bribery and money laundering scandal was such bad legislation — and it was pushed in such bad faith — that it’s hard to see how it could have survived without the more than $60 million in bribes that sustained it. And, while FirstEnergy CEO […]
Corruption trial witness: Householder called them “loans” but wouldn’t sign documents
CINCINNATI — In Washington, D.C. during Donald Trump’s January 2017 inauguration, then-Ohio Rep. Larry Householder had a dinner meeting with the top executives with Akron-based FirstEnergy. The executives stressed their likely need for a state bailout — and their need for a way to make unlimited, untraceable contributions to Householder’s bid for speaker, Householder’s top […]
PUCO report criticizes AEP communication, tree trimming after summer outages
The Public Utility Commission of Ohio has issued a report on a series of power outages last summer. Those outages stemmed from a massive windstorm known as a derecho followed by a heat wave with 90+ degree temperatures. Outages occurred throughout the state, but fell heaviest on communities in Columbus, many of them poor. The […]
As Ohio regulators sit on coal plant subsidy cases, costs could rack up for ratepayers
Although Ohio regulators have paused four FirstEnergy cases dealing with House Bill 6, they could still take action in cases dealing with the two 1950s-era coal plants that were subsidized by the law at the heart of Ohio’s ongoing corruption scandal. Yet the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has made no rulings in those cases […]
Ohio utilities ranked among the worst on fossil fuel use
Three Ohio electricity companies are among the worst in the United States when it comes to weaning themselves off of fossil fuels, according to a major Sierra Club report released this week. And it’s possible that a culprit is huge coal subsidies passed as part of one of the biggest bribery scandals in state history. […]