Ohio

Anti-solar activist confirms ties to gas industry, dark money group
2024-08-28
Jared Yost, leader of the anti-solar Knox Smart Development group, confirmed in recent sworn testimony before the Ohio Power Siting Board that his group was supported by the Ariel Corp. and its allied Empowerment Alliance. Checks & Balances Project reported last March that Yost was a former employee of Ariel, whose former CEO is one… Read more »
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Coal plants running up huge losses in 2024
2024-06-28
Coal-fired power plants lost more than $1.2 billion in January and February, a study by the research institute RMI shows, another sign of the high cost of the fuel compared to others, particularly wind and solar. Three of the biggest losers were the two plants owned by Ohio Valley Electric Corp. (OVEC) and Indiana Michigan… Read more »
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Stonewalling public disclosure, a PUCO tradition, continues
2024-06-5
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio continues to stonewall requests for the names of staff members who recommended a protective order that hid key details of its audit into the state’s corrupt HB 6 law. PUCO lawyers continue to claim they have no records about the staff’s recommendation to grant the order issued last July…. Read more »
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Unlike Ohio’s PUCO, Michigan PSC no pushover on protective orders
2024-05-12
Not only did the Michigan regulators go beyond the timid Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in pulling back higher electricity prices charged by the Ohio Valley Electric Corp., they limited the amount of information covered by protective orders. Checks & Balances Project has revealed how PUCO staffers gave the utilities that share ownership of OVEC… 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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New filings challenge HB 6 audit protective order
2024-01-10
Ohio consumer advocates and major utility customers want the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to disclose more information from the audit into the effects of Ohio’s scandal-plagued HB 6 law. The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and major consumers, including grocery giant Kroger, filed motions with PUCO this week seeking the end to the protective order granted… Read more »
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Resource Fuels owner filed no lobbying reports despite pushing for HB 6
2023-12-13
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 »
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Sam Randazzo indicted for role in Ohio’s HB 6 scandal
2023-12-4
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 »
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