States

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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Michigan rejects OVEC costs while Ohio remains inactive
2024-04-15
Michigan regulators have disallowed $1,025,628 in excess charges for electricity from the coal-fired power plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corp., a dramatic contrast with Ohio regulators paralyzed by the corrupt HB 6 law. On April 11, the Michigan Public Service Commission disallowed the costs Indiana & Michigan Power (I&M) sought to recover for… 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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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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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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