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Anti-solar activists show dismay about Frasier Solar testimony
2024-04-5
Anti-solar activists used to spreading disinformation to supportive audiences expressed dismay Thursday as solar supporters presented their case for the 800-acre Frasier project in Knox County, Ohio. “For the first hour and a half there was literally 1 opponent- Barry Lester,” one commenter on the Knox Smart Development Facebook page said. “How did this happen?… Read more »
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Self-committing electricity drives up costs for consumers, report shows
2024-04-2
Electricity customers paid $10 billion in excess electricity costs between 2016 and 2022 because utilities sent expensive coal-generated power to the grid and crowded out cheaper alternatives, a new report released Tuesday shows. These higher costs, consulting firm RMI reported, meant that some electricity customers sacrificed other essentials to pay for power. “One way we… Read more »
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Latest Ohio indictment ties Householder with other HB 6 conspirators
2024-03-26
By indicting former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder on 10 counts of corruption, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has closed the circle around the four men most responsible for the HB 6 scandal. In February, Yost indicted the two FirstEnergy officials — Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling — and former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio… Read more »
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Shadow of gas industry hovered over anti-solar rally
2024-03-6
To hear anti-renewable energy pundit Robert Bryce tell it, the fight over a proposed solar project in Knox County, Ohio, is between “big banks, big law firms and big NGOs” trying to steamroll plucky residents in rural America despised by urban elites. Except in this case, rural America is represented by the Ariel Corp., the… Read more »
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Will end of HB 6 stays awake sleeping PUCO watchdog?
2024-02-27
The unfreezing of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s investigations into HB 6 gives the beleaguered agency a chance to demonstrate independence from the utilities that saddled ratepayers with unfair and higher electric bills. PUCO issued its first stay of its HB 6 investigations on Aug. 24, 2022, two years after the indictments of former… Read more »
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Who’s a hero to indicted Sam Randazzo? Kevon Martis
2024-02-24
Sam Randazzo, the former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman indicted for corruption by federal and Ohio prosecutors, spent much of his career fighting renewable energy projects. One of his longtime collaborators was Kevon Martis, the roving anti-renewable energy activist who will appear Saturday at an anti-solar rally in Mount Vernon, Ohio. During a May… Read more »
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False claims common at Martis’ anti-renewable rallies
2024-02-23
Whenever Kevon Martis, who speaks at multiple rallies against renewable energy projects, appears, false claims are sure to follow. Speakers claim that renewable energy projects lower property values or make people sick. Many times, those claims are provably false. Martis is scheduled to appear Saturday, Feb. 24, at a rally in Mount Vernon, Ohio, against… Read more »
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Delayed justice finally comes calling for HB 6 players
2024-02-22
For three and a half years, some of the main actors in Ohio’s HB 6 corruption scandal seemed to skate past any legal consequences for their actions, but a pair of recent indictments show that justice delayed may no longer mean justice denied. On Dec. 4, former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) chairman Sam… Read more »
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Longtime coal industry ally Husted says it’s time to repeal HB 6
2024-02-1
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, a longtime ally of indicted former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman Sam Randazzo, says it’s time to repeal HB 6, the law that Randazzo helped write and which subsidizes two coal-fired power plants. “I think that anything that was connected to House Bill 6 needs to be completely removed,”… Read more »
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PUCO accepted utilities’ claims of trade secrecy at face value
2024-01-31
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio granted a protective order in its ongoing audit into the effects of the HB 6 law, based largely on the utilities’ claims of trade secrecy and the lack of any opposition to those claims, according to a revised protective order issued last week. “The existing protective order was granted,… Read more »
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