PUCO Needs Reforms

We're finally getting more of the picture regarding what led to the House Bill 6 scandal. A trove of more than 2,000 records subpoenaed by the FBI shows how former PUCO chair Sam Randazzo, Governor Mike DeWine and others acted leading up to and during passage of HB 6.

The records also prove that, together we are a force to be reckoned with. 

No one exerted more influence over Ohio's corrupt energy policy than Sam Randazzo. Our Ohio Consumers Power Alliance project was correct to call for his resignation.

Thank you to the 2,467 members like you who wrote to demand Gov. Mike DeWine remove him from the PUCO.

Those that were shaping energy policy during these scandalous past few years must be held to account. Won't you please help?

We wholeheartedly agree with this editorial from Sunday's Toledo Blade:

It’s an embarrassment to the very concept of state ethics laws that a regulator could earn millions from a firm he regulated while filing Ohio financial disclosure statements.

It would be better to abolish the Ohio Ethics Commission than to allow this massive failure of process to go unfixed.

Regulators’ foot-dragging on releasing public records hides the full story behind Ohio’s utility corruption scandal. We deserve the truth.

New information comes to light every day affirming that Ohioans have been left in the dark about how our energy policy is made. But PUCO still hasn't produced all the documents from both before and after Randazzo's tenure.

We demand to know:

WHY has the PUCO mostly stayed the course with the approach Randazzo crafted for the agency’s limited and piecemeal response to the HB 6 scandal?

WHY did Gov. DeWine use his personal email to communicate with former PUCO chair Sam Randazzo about House Bill 6?

WHY has the PUCO stymied challengers’ fact-finding efforts in various HB 6-related cases, as well as delaying timelines for those cases, which won’t wrap up before DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted face re-election in the fall?

And WHAT, if anything, has DeWine told the PUCO since Randazzo left about investigating alleged corruption?

Power A Clean Future Ohio goes to Washington

On Thursday August 4, Power a Clean Future Ohio Executive Director Joe Flarida delivered expert testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs during its hearing, "Borrowed Time: The Economic Costs of Climate Change.”

Joe presented the findings from a first-of-its-kind report, The Bill is Coming Due: Calculating the Financial Cost of Climate Change to Ohio’s Local Governments, which provides a conservative estimate of the additional costs that municipalities can expect to incur due to climate change.

According to the report, local governments across Ohio will need to increase municipal spending by as much as $5.9 billion annually by midcentury to adapt to the challenges of a worsening climate crisis.

Do Better

Thank you to everyone who has called, written, emailed, recorded a video, or made a contribution to our Our Crime with DeWine campaign!

We released another video featuring Ohioans who are sick of the lack of leadership and integrity demonstrated by the DeWine/Husted Administration in cleaning up the House Bill 6/PUCO scandal.

Disappointment and frustration over unanswered calls for change and unanswered calls on the phone are moving more Ohioans to action. They are demanding the Governor “do better.”

We hope you will take a moment to watch:

Our voices are being heard

"Coal subsidies and gutted renewable standards remain two years after Householder’s bribery arrest." It's enough to make you think you have to be living in an alternate universe. But no, just living in Ohio post House Bill 6. 

Our former Senior Advisor, Lisa Maatz commented on how the Ohio legislature have refused to pass a full repeal of HB6: 

“Consumers are getting hosed in Ohio right now and they know it... Politicians have been counting on consumers having short memories..the reality is the sting of this is lingering and we get a reminder of it every month when our bills come up.”

FirstEnergy’s Executive Council knew of Randazzo payout long before FBI closed in

The $4.3 million Randazzo payment was disclosed last week in a shareholder securities lawsuit

FirstEnergy's C-suite executives and senior VPs were apparently all informed of the company's plan to bribe Ohio's top utility regulator in a meeting months before they paid out the $4.3 million bribe. FirstEnergy only publicly disclosed the payout in 2020 after the FBI raided Randazzo’s home.

The timing of the alleged Executive Council meeting matters

Former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones disclosed the existence of the payment to Randazzo’s private consulting firm at an Executive Council meeting in December 2018. It means that we can finally let go of the claim that Governor DeWine hand-picked Sam Randazzo to lead the Public Utilities Commission without knowing his ties to FirstEnergy.

It's further evidence how FirstEnergy works behind the scenes to protect their profits and fight the clean energy transition.

TAKE ACTION!

Did you know that we have two electric school bus manufacturers in the state of Ohio and 611 school districts, yet NOT ONE electric school bus is driven on our roads?! If you have a moment, please tell your school district leaders today that you are ready for EV buses in Ohio!

Un-happy Scandalversary

Two years ago on July 21, FBI agents blew open the biggest bribery scheme in Ohio history with the arrests of Larry Householder and four associates on bribery and racketeering charges.

In the 24 months that followed:

• Two men pled guilty
• FirstEnergy fired top executives
• Ohio's top utility regulator Sam Randazzo resigned (after the FBI raided his condo)
• one co-defendant died by suicide
• lawmakers expelled Householder from the Legislature
• FirstEnergy admitted complicity in the bribery scheme and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the federal government; and
• Some of the tainted HB6 was repealed

BUT...Ohioans have yet to see justice fully done. 

With your help, our Crime with DeWine campaign keeps pressing for accountability in Columbus and real reform at the PUCO.

Our latest video featured Zach Bullheimer, a Columbus resident who was impacted by last month’s life-threatening AEP power shutoffs. Zach details how he was personally affected by the outages, but also how others in his neighborhood suffered because of grid vulnerabilities and a lack of advanced notice for consumers.

Governor Mike DeWine knew these outages were coming, yet did nothing to warn Ohioans. He did, however, find the time to accept $13,000 in campaign contributions from AEP in April of this year. His priorities are clear.

Ohio deserves a comprehensive energy policy built around equitable solutions that are good for our economy, our communities, and our health. We continue to call on lawmakers to immediately repeal ALL of HB 6 in order to reinstate Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards in full and stop supporting ratepayer-funded subsidies of antiquated coal facilities.