The deadline to repeal a contentious bill pushed through the Ohio state legislature by former House Speaker Larry Householder passed on Thursday, making a $0.85 utility rate increase for ratepayers across the state all but imminent.
That’s despite Householder’s criminal indictment on racketeering and corruption charges this summer, subsequent resignation as House Speaker and a slew of lawsuits and probes into FirstEnergy and its affiliates — the companies allegedly involved in the $60 million scheme. The bill helps bail out two Energy Harbor plants that had previously declared bankruptcy. Energy Harbor is a former subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp.
At least two bills to repeal House Bill 6 were being considered when the deadline passed Thursday. It takes 90 days to put a law into effect, so nothing can be passed through the normal process at this point, but Ohio AG Dave Yost filed a suit last week to keep the energy company from receiving any money collected through the rate increase.
