Advocacy groups are pushing Ohio’s public utilities commission to pursue a broader investigation of FirstEnergy and affiliates’ alleged lobbying activities associated with nuclear power plant bailouts under Larry Householder, the former Ohio House speaker.
The utility company has until the end of the day Wednesday to show cause demonstrating that the costs of any political or charitable spending in support of the controversial House Bill 6, the bailout legislation, were not subsidized by Ohio ratepayers.
How the probe continues depends on the type of evidence the company submits, Matt Schilling, a commission spokesman, has said. But some intervening parties, like the Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Ohio Environmental Council, are already asking for more.
The advocacy groups are pushing the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to look into how FirstEnergy and its affiliates were involved in the legislation, and how they “may have run afoul of either the letter or spirit of Ohio’s corporate separation requirements” and “whether and why the utilities or their parent corporation took positions to support a former unregulated affiliate, FirstEnergy Solutions, now known as Energy Harbor,” according to a motion to expand the scope of the PUCO’s review filed Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Ohio Consumers’ Council (OCC), the state’s residential utility consumer advocate, filed a motion to intervene and a 135-page interlocutory appeal in the case Sept. 21, claiming PUCO’s proposed review is inadequate.
Lawyers for FirstEnergy and its affiliates filed a request on Tuesday asking PUCO attorney examiner Greg Price to deny the OCC’s request to take an interlocutory appeal.
FirstEnergy Corp. has insisted since the scandal’s inception that it has nothing to do with Energy Harbor, the company that owns the two nuclear plants saved by HB6. But the Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Ohio Environmental Council say the claim can’t be taken at face value.
