Much of the $280 million was to cover coal-plant losses the three electric companies racked up before passage of scandal-soaked House Bill 6, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed in July 2019, after then-House Speaker Larry Householder, a Perry County Republican, pushed the measure to passage.
House Bill 6 was greased into Ohio’s lawbooks in large part with the help of “dark money,” much of it mustered by Akron-based FirstEnergy. (In mid-July 2021, in connection with the HB 6 affair, FirstEnergy signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office for Southern Ohio, agreeing to pay a $230 million penalty to the federal government.)
Originally HB 6′s main goal was to bail out, at consumers’ expense, money losing nuclear power plants FirstEnergy then owned in Lake and Ottawa counties. To help get HB 6 passed, it included sections to woo support from Ohio’s other big electric companies. Example: HB 6 let them bill ratepayers to cover losses of two coal-fueled electric plants, in Gallia County (Kyger Creek) and Indiana (Clifty Creek) owned by Ohio Valley Electric Co., whose ownership group includes AEP, AES and Duke.
When the HB 6 affair exploded, the legislature (in a bill DeWine also OK’d) very partially repealed the law: Gone was the nuclear-plant bailout, but . But left in place: The coal plant subsidies.
According to the Office of Consumers’ Counsel – which represents residential utility customers at the Statehouse – Ohio electricity ratepayers have forked over more than $350 million since Jan. 1, 2020, to cover the coal plants’ losses, more than $510,000 a day.
That’s evidently fine with the PUCO. It’s appointed by the governor; appointees must win the state Senate’s approval. Senate confirmation isn’t a high bar to clear: In 2019, with Republicans and Democrats alike in favor, senators unanimously confirmed DeWine’s choice, Samuel Randazzo, to chair the PUCO.
He resigned in November 2020. Late in 2023 a federal grand jury indicted Randazzo on charges that he took official actions at the PUCO favorable to FirstEnergy in exchange for $4.3 million. Then, early this year, a Summit County grand jury also indicted Randazzo, alleging, among other things, that he’d “served inside the [state] government as a clandestine lobbyist for FirstEnergy.” Randazzo, 74, died in April, by suicide.
In a report to the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, consulting firm RunnerStone found “Ohioans are expected to subsidize [the coal plants’] utility owners over $950 million total by 2030, all of which directly profits utility shareholders.”
Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis said this of the PUCO’s decision to force the coal plants’ losses onto ratepayers shoulders: “Inside of five minutes [on Aug. 21], the PUCO approved $280 million in charges to Ohio consumers for coal plant subsidies. Consumers once again got stuck with the bill.”
Yes, they sure did. Governor after governor, and legislator after legislator, have let utilities have their way with Ohio’s ratepayers. Someday, a statewide candidate with a backbone will declare that enough is enough. Given cost-squeezes the PUCO forces Ohioans to endure, that day can’t come too soon.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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