State utility regulators preparing for Ohio House Bill 6 hearing
Ohio utility regulators are gearing up for hearings on FirstEnergy's role in the House Bill 6 scandal. Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is behind bars — although seeking a presidential pardon — for overseeing the largest corruption case in state history.
FirstEnergy funneled about $60 million to a dark money group controlled by Householder. The former speaker used that money to secure his own leadership position and influence passage of HB 6. The measure propped up a pair of nuclear plants and aging coal facilities by tacking a rider onto consumers' monthly bills.
But that's just the broad strokes. Nearly five years on from Householder's indictment, questions remain about how exactly the scheme unfolded and where FirstEnergy officials got the money for it. Half a dozen former FirstEnergy officials in government affairs and c-suite positions are set to testify in a PUCO hearing next week. Four of them previously pled the Fifth and have since received immunity from a Franklin County judge.
At the heart of the case, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel wants to demonstrate whether FirstEnergy used the money it got from average consumers to bribe state officials.
In January, former FirstEnergy executives Charles 'Chuck' Jones and Michael Dowling were indicted on federal racketeering charges. Last year, state officials filed more than 40 charges against the executives as well as the man they bribed, former PUCO chairman Sam Randazzo. Last week, a judge in Summit County dismissed theft charges against Jones and Dowling, but they still face several other state criminal charges.
The PUCO proceedings focus on the employees one rung below Jones and Dowling, attempting to show how money moved in the scheme by gathering testimony from the foot soldiers who answered to FirstEnergy's leadership.
Four of the witnesses previously refused to testify, citing their Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. A Franklin County judge ordered them to testify and granted them 'the broadest possible immunity' from prosecution.
Ohio indictments provide a better picture of squalid relationships that spurred massive scandal
The PUCO will also hear from Steven Strah, the former CFO who took over FirstEnergy following Jones' ouster, and Robert Reffner, the company's chief legal officer at the time of the scandal.
The Ohio Consumers' Counsel subpoenas argue consumers were wrongly charged more than $6.6 million, and another $7.4 million was incorrectly listed as a capital expenditure. Compelling testimony, the filings argue, 'will help establish how and why FirstEnergy improperly misallocated House Bill 6 costs to the FirstEnergy Utilities.'
'We look forward to getting answers for FirstEnergy consumers and holding FirstEnergy accountable,' Ohio Consumers' Counsel Maureen Willis said in a statement. 'Justice for FirstEnergy consumers is long overdue.'
Just over a month ago, state lawmakers voted to put an end to the House Bill 6 rider tacked on to ratepayers' monthly bills. The legislation won't take effect until August. Democrats in the Ohio House, meanwhile, argue the door remains open for next House Bill 6.
'No law in Ohio prevented this scandal,' state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Westlake, argued at a press conference last month. 'And since, not one law has even remotely been truly attempted to fix this massive injustice.'
Sweeney, and state Reps. Chris Glassburn, D-North Olmsted, Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, and Desiree Tims, D-Dayton, have filed bills that would require contribution disclosures to or so-called dark money groups, institute penalties for undermining signature gathering campaigns and bar companies that make contributions from receiving state contracts.
The PUCO will hold a procedural hearing this morning, with the evidentiary portion of the case beginning next week, on June 10. The hearings themselves will likely take several days.
Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.
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