FirstEnergy Solutions rang up $1 million legal bill to pass House Bill 6

COLUMBUS -- FirstEnergy Solutions rang up a legal bill approaching $1 million to help persuade the Ohio General Assembly to approve the $1 billion, consumer-financed bailout of its pair of nuclear power plants.

Led by work on House Bill 6, a request for payment of legal bills filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Akron shows FirstEnergy Solutions was billed $1.149 million for legal work on 'state government affairs.'

The billing covers April 1 through July 31, the period in which House Bill 6 was introduced, received more than a dozen committee hearings and then was passed by the Republican-controlled House and Senate."

-- Randy Ludlow, Columbus Dispatch

read more

Letter: Ohio’s leaders should condemn false advertising

Rachael Belz, Executive director, Ohio Citizen Action.

COLUMBUS -- "As executive director of Ohio Citizen Action, I feel compelled to express my disgust over the outright lies pro-bailout forces have employed to quash the ballot initiative to repeal House Bill 6, the coal and nuclear bailout bill. It’s bad enough to suggest that signing a petition gives personal information to the Chinese government, but Ohioans for Energy Security goes too far in encouraging Ohioans to report petitioners’ locations via a “hotline,” as if they were an invading menace to be feared.

Our staff members circulate support statements for our energy campaigns and my first thought when seeing the ads was concern for their safety and helping them to avoid harassment. On these grounds, our organization has issued a cease-and-desist letter calling for the ads to be pulled.

Ohioans for Energy Security also has hired workers known as “blockers” to shadow petition circulators and prevent voters from signing petitions. Last week a “blocker” assaulted a paid signature collector for Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts.

Where are Ohio’s politicians? Why are they not condemning these false ads and physical attacks? Why isn’t Gov. Mike DeWine speaking out? It’s completely irresponsible for our lawmakers, even those misguided enough to have voted for the bailout, to fail to condemn this campaign.

-- Rachael Belz, letter to the editor, Columbus Dispatch

Supporters of FirstEnergy Solutions launch a racist, anti-democracy “yellow peril” campaign

Jarvis DeBerry, columnist at cleveland.com and a member of the editorial board.

CLEVELAND -- "The mailer from Ohioans for Energy Security purports to be looking out for America and American interests, but what is more American than giving the people a say in how their tax dollars are spent? What’s more American than people who feel passionately about an issue, walking the streets and knocking on doors in the attempt to persuade other people to feel the same?

That’s the irony in the bail-out supporters’ mailer. By suggesting that their political opponents ought to be reported for their political activity, they’re acting like the repressive government they’re pushing us to us fear.

If we accept the group’s position that it’s OK to report our political adversaries, then all is already lost. There’d be no need for any foreign power to control us."

--Jarvis DeBerry, cleveland.com

read more