2022 endorsement announcement

Ohio Citizen Action proudly announces the organization’s first round of c4 candidate endorsements in nearly 30 years. The 2022 endorsement slate includes statewide, Congressional, and state legislative candidates. 

“After nearly 30 years, Ohio Citizen Action has made the choice to engage in the endorsement process again to better inform and engage Ohio voters in the democratic process,” said Ohio Citizen Action Political Director, Kyle Marcum. “The candidates endorsed by Ohio Citizen Action are demonstrably pro-climate and firmly committed to protecting voting rights for the residents of Ohio. This election is just too important to sit it out.” 

Endorsed candidates include:

• Jennifer Brunner (D) for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice
• Marilyn Zayas (D) for Ohio Supreme Court
• Terri Jamison (D) for Ohio Supreme Court
• Tim Ryan (D) for U.S. Senate
• Greg Landsman (D) for U.S. Congress (CD-1)
• Marcy Kaptur (D) for U.S. Congress (CD-9)
• Emilia Sykes (D) for U.S. Congress (CD-13)
• Casey Weinstein (D) for Ohio State Representative (HD-34)

As part of our work around these announced endorsements, OCA will be knocking on doors and talking with Ohio voters in targeted areas around the state in support of the endorsed candidates. OCA is a c4 organization that focuses on mobilizing Ohioans around improving environmental quality, protecting consumers, and preserving voting rights. A second round of issue endorsements is expected to be announced within the next week. 

“Given the abject failure of Ohio’s leaders in securing Constitutionally fair and final electoral maps, as well as the unprecedented energy scandal that still casts a shadow over Ohio’s Statehouse, support for candidates who are dedicated to ensuring legislative and electoral integrity has become even more critical,” said Marcum. “For too long, many of Ohio’s elected officials have turned a blind eye to monumental issues such as climate change, gerrymandering, and corruption. We deserve better, and Ohio Citizen Action is ready to help mobilize support for candidates who put Ohioans first.”

House Bill 429 is a Vital Step for Ohio

Sarah Ricks

Canal Winchester, OH

We Cannot Lag Behind the Rest of the World

Eleanor Webb

Cleveland, OH

Let's Get Behind the Energy Jobs & Justice Act!

Mark Jaffee

Oberlin, OH

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.

Most of us don’t have $61 million to spend

No comment is NOT acceptable, Gov. DeWine

Protect Ohio, not AEP, Gov. DeWine

Thousands of Ohioans like you have contacted Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted complaining about their lack of leadership following the HB6 scandal and their refusal to reject campaign cash from regulated utilities.

This week’s Crime with DeWine video features young people reading snippets of these letters sent to the Governor and making a call of their own for the DeWine Administration to do their jobs and stand up for Ohioans.

More intentional power outages are on the horizon as temperatures climb this summer, and with the news that AEP gave Governor Mike DeWine $13,000 in campaign contributions, we need the DeWine administration to protect the public, not AEP.

Ohioans, young and old, are counting on it.

We hope you will take a moment to watch this week’s Crime with DeWine video and send Governor DeWine a message today.

University Heights joins Power A Clean Future Ohio

University Heights is officially the 32nd PCFO Community! Their city council passed the resolution on June 21 with unanimous support. 

Change truly happens at the local level! There are huge opportunities for cities to partner with Power a Clean Future Ohio to increase and accelerate their climate actions. While there is still so much to do, in many cities across Ohio this work is already underway thanks to your support.

We are extremely grateful to everyone who contributed to help fund our Crime with DeWine campaign so far. Because of you, we were able to raise more than $16,805 from 511 contributors to bring our message to the Governor's doorstep.