The guilty pleas are piling up, but Householder remains
When lobbying efforts failed to produce subsidies, FirstEnergy resorted to bribery.
When citizens tried to organize a referendum to repeal House Bill 6, FirstEnergy indulged in dirty tactics.
The House Bill 6 scandal continues to unravel, Ohio Citizen :
FirstEnergy admits it used customer money to pass House Bill 6
It turns out that we were paying for the corruption all along. FirstEnergy officials admitted last week that ratepayers paid for political & lobbying efforts, as first reported by @clevelanddotcom. FirstEnergy has so far provided few answers regarding how much customer money was involved, and when/how that money will be refunded to customers.
Coshocton leaders call for Householder removal
All three Coshocton County commissioners as well as several county Republican Party committee members are among those who signed a letter asking House Speaker Bob Cupp to immediately replace Larry Householder as their state representative.
They wrote, "holding an elective office is not a right, it is a privilege and a sacred trust. The State of Ohio deserves to proceed with the work of the people and it is clear to us that Representative Householder cannot effectively serve the interests of Coshocton County while the criminal charges are ongoing.”
A timeline of Speaker Cupp’s inaction on removing Householder from office
Tyler Buchanan from the Ohio Capital Journal put together a timeline showing all of Speaker Cupp’s statements regarding Householder in context with what has happened.
When asked by a reporter on Thursday whether House Republicans have finally decided whether to expel Householder, Speaker Cupp replied,"No update from last week or the week before or the week before."
DeWine defends top aide embroiled in HB6 scandal
Responding to a press question about FirstEnergy and his top aide Dan McCarthy, Mike DeWine said "I have faith in his integrity."
The feds haven’t accused DeWine’s aide, Legislative Affairs Director Dan McCarthy of wrongdoing, but they refer to his dark-money group in an affidavit supporting Householder’s arrest as an “Energy Pass-Through.”
When he was still a lobbyist for FirstEnergy,McCarthy started a dark money group - Partners For Progress - that formed a link in the money chain between FirstEnergy, Generation Now and the effort to pass HB6.
The coal subsidies - another reason to repeal HB6
The Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) coal subsidies are one of the worst aspects of HB6, yet repealing the OVEC provisions is one of the least talked about aspects as the legislature moves forward on piecemeal repeal.
There are a number of bills moving in the legislature that will repeal parts of House Bill 6, but we continue to advocate for full clean repeal of the entire bill.