C&BP files FOIA request for details of PUCO protective order in HB 6 case

Posted by & filed under TOP NEWS, Uncategorized, Ohio.

Checks & Balances Project filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) Thursday, seeking the names and deliberations of staff members who recommended granting the protective order that hid key details from the audit into the effects of Ohio’s HB 6 law. The protective order granted July 7… Read more »

Resource Fuels owner filed no lobbying reports despite pushing for HB 6

Posted by & filed under Ohio, Featured Story, Uncategorized, Ohio.

The Boich Companies filed Ohio forms claiming they conducted no lobbying from 2017 through 2019, even though court records show their officials were intimately involved in the passage of HB 6, the law requiring state ratepayers to bail out two coal-fired power plants. Boich’s lobbying reports are another facet of the company’s stealth campaign to… Read more »

References to Boich Companies in FirstEnergy deferred prosecution agreement

Posted by & filed under TOP NEWS, Uncategorized, Ohio.

Many of the activities of the Boich Companies, owners of coal supplier Resource Fuels, are included in the 2021 federal deferred prosecution agreement signed by FirstEnergy, the Akron-based utility that admitted bribing its way to the passage of HB 6, the 2019 law that bailed out power plants tied to the company. The deferred prosecution… Read more »

Sam Randazzo indicted for role in Ohio’s HB 6 scandal

Posted by & filed under Ohio, TOP NEWS.

Sam Randazzo, the former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, was charged in an 11-count indictment for his involvement in the passage of the HB 6 that bailed out money-losing nuclear- and coal-fueled power plants and gutted Ohio’s renewable energy mandate. Randazzo, the PUCO chair from April 2019 until his resignation in November… Read more »

C&BP seeks identities of PUCO staffers who recommended HB6 audit protective order

Posted by & filed under Ohio, TOP NEWS, Investigations, Clean Energy Equality, Fossil Fuel Lobby, Ohio.

Checks & Balances Project is requesting the identities of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission staff members who recommended issuing the protective order that declared publicly available information to be trade secrets in the audit conducted into the details of Ohio’s HB6 law. The order, granted July 7 by Attorney Examiner Megan Addison, forced the redaction… Read more »

PUCO’s protective order redacts publicly available information

Posted by & filed under TOP NEWS, Ohio.

A protective order issued by the Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) in its audit of the scandal-plagued HB6 law redacts publicly available information that can be found on federal websites and the annual reports of the utility bailed out by HB6. The order issued July 7, 2023, said information contained in the audit conducted by… Read more »

HB6 enabled coal company that donated to Householder bribery fund to keep overcharging for coal

Posted by & filed under Ohio, TOP STORIES, Uncategorized, Ohio.

A coal company that donated to the fund used to bribe former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder was overpaid for coal because of the law the now-imprisoned Householder rammed through the Ohio Legislature in 2019, according to an audit of the law, federal records and testimony by utility analysts. That law, HB6, includes riders that… Read more »

Householder gets 20-year sentence for his role in massive utility bailout scheme

Posted by & filed under Ohio, TOP STORIES, Ohio.

Larry Householder, the former Ohio House speaker convicted of bribery and racketeering for his role in a massive scheme to bail out a utility’s failing power plants, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. “You were not serving the people,” U.S. District Judge Timothy Black told Householder. “You were serving yourself. You were… Read more »