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Tag: American Electric Power

  • Ohio coal plant said to be nation’s most deadly. New owners seem likely to keep it open

    Ohio coal plant said to be nation’s most deadly. New owners seem likely to keep it open

    By:  – Ohio Capital Journal

    Environmental activists have been pressing the company buying an Ohio coal plant said to be the nation’s deadliest to retire the facility. But that seems unlikely, given statements it made in a regulatory filing that it provided to the Ohio Capital Journal.

    The buyer, Energy Capital Partners, has boasted of helping plants make the transition away from coal. It hasn’t answered questions about its plans for Gavin, but in a Dec. 11 filing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, it expressed no such plans for the Gavin Plant.

    “As with any electric generation facility, (Energy Capital Partners) and Javelin expect that the Gavin facility… will continue to operate for so long as they are legally able to do so on an economic basis,” it said.

    Energy Capital Partners, or ECP, and Javelin are private-equity firms that are in the process of buying the 50-year-old plant from another private-equity firm, Blackstone. The 2,600 megawatt plant along the Ohio River near Cheshire has stirred controversy for years.

    To settle lawsuits in 2002, a former owner, American Electric Power, bought out residents around the plant for more than three times the value of their property.

    The generating facility had been dumping toxic coal ash into unlined pits, creating worries that it would contaminate groundwater. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2022 ordered it to stop, and now its owners face a $40 million cleanup liability.

    And a 2023 analysis by the Sierra Club looked at coal-plant emissions and weather patterns. It concluded that because it sends a plume of toxins over populous areas in the eastern United States, the Gavin plant is the deadliest in the country, killing an estimated 244 people a year.

    Many investors have been turning away from fossil fuels — and especially coal — as a method of powering electricity generation. But private-equity investors have been taking up some of the slack, with nearly 80% of their power plant investments being in those fueled by coal or gas.

    Private equity has been stigmatized over claims that it practices one of the harshest forms of capitalism. They often buy assets in deals that quickly recoup their investments, then frequently sell off the most valuable parts of an enterprise, and then walk away either by selling or declaring bankruptcy. Whether people needlessly lose jobs or consumers lose choices is not a consideration, critics say.

    That has left environmentalists and private-equity critics worried that Gavin’s owners will continue to operate it as a polluting coal plant, then close it, and find a way to stick taxpayers with any cleanup costs.

    However, Energy Capital Partners bills itself as a company that helps utilities convert from using coal.

    “Energy Capital Partners (ECP) is a leading credit and equity investor across energy transition infrastructure, with a focus on investing in electricity and sustainability infrastructure, providing reliable, affordable clean energy,” its website says.

    The company last week declined to respond to questions, other than to send the Dec. 11 filing it made in a FERC proceeding. In it, ECP made several statements that seem to indicate the company plans to keep the Gavin plant operating as it is.

    “Notably, the Gavin facility has an existing long-term contract for coal supply with a supplier unaffiliated with Javelin, and ECP and Javelin have no intention of altering those arrangements,” it says.

    The filing also said that it’s just speculation that the new owners plan to retire the plant.

    “… regarding a secondhand, unnamed source’s speculation regarding plans to retire the Gavin facility, ECP and Javelin confirm that there are no such plans,” it said. “Notably, even the post cited by the Joint Protesters for the proposition that Gavin may be retired ‘in the coming years’ simply states (again, based on an unnamed source) that the facility may close or be converted to run on a different fuel by 2031, which is well outside of the forward-looking view on which the Commission relies in reviewing Section 203 applications.”

    A group critical of the practices of private-equity investors asked what it would take to close the Gavin Plant

    “Whether owned by Blackstone or ECP, every day that private equity firms continue to operate the deadly Gavin coal plant is another day that private equity executives are choosing to put communities at greater health risk,” Alissa Jean Schafer, Climate Director of the Private Equity Stakeholder Project said in a statement. “Gavin is one of the worst polluting power plants in the nation, and as emission plumes travel downwind, these negative health impacts reach far beyond Ohio. How many more premature deaths will be linked to Gavin before this plant is shut down?”
    _______________
    Marty Schladen
    Marty Schladen

    Marty Schladen has been a reporter for decades, working in Indiana, Texas and other places before returning to his native Ohio to work at The Columbus Dispatch in 2017. He’s won state and national journalism awards for investigations into utility regulation, public corruption, the environment, prescription drug spending and other matters.

    Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

    MORE FROM AUTHOR

  • Ohioans spent $211 million subsidizing two coal plants over last two years

    Ohioans spent $211 million subsidizing two coal plants over last two years

    BY: JAKE ZUCKERMAN – Ohio Capital Journal

    Electric customers across Ohio collectively spent an estimated $211 million via add-on bill charges over the last two years to cover for losses from two coal-fired power plants that continue to bleed millions annually, according to new data from state regulators.

    The money to the Ohio Valley Electric Corp. (OVEC) — an entity comprised of several investor-owned utilities from multiple states that operates the plants — flows thanks to a 2019 state law now at the center of a criminal bribery prosecution.

    The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio began to allow three of the utilities that own and are contractually obligated to buy power from OVEC — American Electric Power (43% equity stake), Duke Energy (9%), and AES Ohio (4.9%) — to pass on their losses on OVEC to their customers, starting in the mid-2010s. The payments were originally only allowed through 2024. Through 2019, the three utilities’ customers were charged an estimated $159 million on OVEC.

    House Bill 6, a law passed in 2019 that’s now the focal point of what prosecutors have said is the largest political corruption investigation in state history, extended the subsidies through 2030 and spread the three utilities’ (AEP, Duke and AES) losses to electric customers of all Ohio utilities (not just those that own OVEC).

    In 2020, Ohio electric customers statewide paid $115 million to OVEC’s owners to cover their losses on the deal, according to data provided by a PUCO spokesman. In 2021, they paid about $97 million (July through December 2021 costs are estimates). Under the law, residential customers pay a maximum $1.50 per month to utilities to cover their OVEC losses. Industrial customers pay a maximum of $1,500.

    OVEC operates two 1950s-era coal plants in Cheshire, Ohio and Madison, Indiana, originally built to power the federal government’s uranium enrichment facilities near Portsmouth. That agreement ended in 2003. The utility companies that own OVEC last renegotiated their contract in 2011 extending its life through 2040.

    Technically, the OVEC plants could save utility customers money if OVEC could generate and sell electricity at below-market costs. However, a mix of market forces, environmental regulations and recently spending more than $1 billion on a “scrubber” system designed to limit emissions have left the plants selling electricity at costs well above those of PJM, an energy marketplace serving utilities in 13 states including Ohio.

    “[Our] analysis shows that at this time, the OVEC plants cost customers more than the cost of energy and capacity that could be bought on the PJM wholesale markets,” wrote London Economics International, a firm the PUCO commissioned to audit the subsidies, in December.

    A draft version of a 2020 PUCO-commissioned audit by the same firm found that “keeping the plants running does not seem to be in the best interests of the ratepayers.” The line was removed from the final version at the request of a PUCO staffer who asked the auditors to use a “milder tone and intensity of language,” according to emails obtained by the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC), which represents ratepayers in PUCO cases and has advocated ending the OVEC subsidies.

    In a 2018 bankruptcy filing, FirstEnergy disclosed losing $12 million per year due to its 4.85% equity stake in OVEC. As lawmakers considered HB 6, legislative analysts estimated Ohio utilities paid $94 million above wholesale market costs in 2018 alone to purchase OVEC-generated electricity.

    Along with the raw finances, Ohio consumers are subsidizing plants that have belched nearly 21 million tons of carbon dioxide, 21,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, and 12,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere since January 2020, plus smaller discharges of arsenic, lead, and mercury, according to data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided by the OCC.

    “Why the hell is this still in place?” said Neil Waggoner, an advocate with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “I think that this is utility capture in practice. This is the utilities in this state having a death grip on the regulators and people in power to the point that they’re getting exactly what they want.”

     The Clifty Creek Power Plant, in Madison, Indiana, which is operated by OVEC. Photo taken by Rep. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, who visited the plant and has called for a repeal of state law forcing Ohio ratepayers to subsidize it.

    A sticky bailout

    FirstEnergy Corp. admitted in July to paying more than $60 million to an account controlled by the former House Speaker and his allies to ensure passage of HB 6. The prosecutors’ allegations have focused in court documents on an estimated $1.3 billion nuclear bailout and other non-coal related provisions of the sweeping bill that are favorable FirstEnergy. Former speaker Larry Householder, accused of using the money to engineer passage of the bill and shore up his own political aims, has pleaded not guilty. Two Householder allies involved in the alleged scheme have pleaded guilty to racketeering.

    State lawmakers in early 2021 passed legislation repealing the nuclear bailout and “decoupling” provision (a ratepayer-backed revenue guarantee for FirstEnergy). However, the OVEC bailout was left intact.

    There are bipartisan efforts in the House and Senate to repeal the OVEC bailout from state law, and the narrower PUCO-approved bailout that preceded them. Neither has come up for a vote and the sponsors are pessimistic on their chances.

    Sen. Mark Romanchuk, R-Ontario, perhaps the plants’ most prominent critic and co-sponsor of the Senate legislation, said he is in negotiations with the utilities that own the plants and is not giving up. He declined an interview.

    “Not sure where things will go but we’re not giving up,” Romanchuk said.

    House Democrats have called for a repeal of the OVEC subsidies, though they only control 34 of 99 seats in the chamber. Rep. Jeff Crossman, a Parma Democrat who recently announced plans to run for attorney general, said the OVEC charges should be repealed but as much is unlikely.

    He said OVEC’s sponsors contribute tens of thousands in campaign contributions per year, mostly to Republicans. AEP, through a middleman, contributed $700,000 to Generation Now, the account prosecutors say Householder used to engineer passage of HB 6 in the first place.

    “There’s probably not a will to undo the OVEC charges,” he said. “They donate gobs of cash to the right folks. There’s just no other reason to support these plants.”

    House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, said in October he doesn’t believe there’s support in the House Republican caucus to repeal the coal bailout.

    House Majority Leader Bill Seitz, R-Green Twp., has told several state media outlets the bailouts aren’t going anywhere. He did not respond to written questions about the uneconomic nature of the plants, or why ratepayers should cover their owners’ losses on them.

    “We’ve beat this [OVEC] horse to death. It’s not going to change,” Seitz said to Cleveland.com in October. “They’ve introduced God knows how many bills — none of them are going anywhere, in my humble opinion.”

    Michigan takes action

    AEP is by far OVEC’s largest shareholder, with a roughly 43% equity stake in the company, and the two share several executives.

    While repeal efforts in Ohio are at a lull, other states have signaled resistance to allowing utilities to continue to pass OVEC’s owners’ losses to customers.

    The Michigan Public Service Commission in a November order noted that OVEC’s costs exceed the market price of electricity by tens of millions. It warned that AEP’s local utility may not be able to pass on all its OVEC losses to customers that are “incurred because of imprudent” decisions.

    “The order today put I&M [an AEP unit] on notice that the Michigan share of these excess costs are unlikely to be permitted without additional evidence that continuing to purchase power from the units was in the best interest of its customers,” the Michigan regulators said in a news release.

    AEP spokesman Scott Blake said in an email the OVEC plants are “critical resources that help ensure the reliability of the grid and offer protection from increases in the costs of other fuels.” He said AEP Ohio customers for decades benefitted from OVEC’s power via affordable electricity and good jobs. OVEC, he argued, insulates customers from cost spikes caused by things like a surge in natural gas prices or a shortfall of renewable energy supply.

    “AEP Ohio customers benefited for decades from the power provided by OVEC in the form of affordable electricity and good jobs,” he said. “While there may be years where power from OVEC is more expensive than the market, as generation from natural gas and other sources becomes more expensive, customers could see refunds from OVEC in the future.”

    Fitch Ratings determined OVEC’s outlook is “stable” in February — just one step above “speculative.” However, its analysts found that repealing HB 6 wouldn’t necessarily harm OVEC’s prospects. The analysts reasoned that for one, in the event of a repeal, AEP, Duke and AES would still be able to pass on their OVEC losses to customers. For two, the “sponsoring” utilities have already contractually agreed to purchase the power OVEC generates, regardless of who eats the losses.

    Meanwhile, in a Virginia appeal of a public service commission rate case, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring accused OVEC of charging an AEP utility in Virginia well beyond market costs for electricity. The case is ongoing.

  • Ratepayers spent $166 million and counting bailing out coal plants under law that passed via bribes

    Ratepayers spent $166 million and counting bailing out coal plants under law that passed via bribes

    BY: JAKE ZUCKERMAN and Ohio Capital Journal

    Despite several plea deals with federal prosecutors regarding bribery on a massive scale to pass legislation providing a windfall to nuclear and coal companies, Ohio utility customers continue to fund bailouts of failing coal-fired power plants in Ohio and Indiana.

    In the first half of 2021, Ohio utility customers paid $51 million to subsidize the plants, which are jointly owned by Ohio utility companies like American Electric Power, Duke Energy, AES Ohio and others. That’s on top of the $115 million ratepayers paid last year, according to data from state utility regulators.

    Sen. Mark Romanchuk, R-Ontario, has spearheaded efforts within the GOP on a piece-by-piece strategy to repeal the remnants of House Bill 6, which codified the coal bailout through 2030.

    HB 6 passed via the muscle of $61 million that utility giant FirstEnergy Corp. paid into an account secretly controlled by House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford. That money funded the bill’s passage and enriched those in on the scheme, according to a statement of facts the company proffered to the U.S. Department of Justice. (Householder has pleaded not guilty to a count of racketeering and awaits trial.)

    Romanchuk said Tuesday he’s facing resistance from his counterparts on the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee as far as repealing the coal plant bailouts.

    “You need votes to get it out of committee; the votes probably aren’t there right now,” he said to reporters after a hearing.

     State Sen. Mark Romanchuk, R-Ontario. Official photo.

    “The legislation has some other things in it like refunds that are probably, in the minds of committee members, not what they want to vote for.”

    Earlier this year, representatives of the utilities that comprise the Ohio Valley Electric Corp., which owns the two plants, appeared before the committee to argue in favor of the subsidies.

    Senate Energy Chairman Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, said Tuesday he has no update on timing regarding a vote to repeal the coal bailouts. He said Romanchuk is working behind the scenes to prepare the bill for a vote, but he’s not involved in specific details.

    “You know how I feel about House Bill 6. I voted no because I thought it stunk from the very beginning,” he said. “But at the same time, we’ve got to work this through the committee process and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

    Tuesday’s hearing: solar credits

    The Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee met Tuesday to consider Senate Bill 118, a Romanchuk bill that would repeal a lesser-discussed piece of HB 6: a $20 million annual credit, funded by utility customers, for certain solar projects.

    Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Chris Brown halted collections over nuclear and solar subsidies under HB 6 via an injunction in December, according to PUCO spokesman Matt Schilling. However, in April, Brown issued a ruling allowing the solar fund collections to begin on Nov. 1, 2021.

    SB 118 has support from opponents of HB 6: the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, the Ohio Manufacturing Association, and the Ohio Consumers Counsel, which represents ratepayers.

    Lobbyists representing OMA and AFP described the credit structure as a form of cronyism, alleging HB 6 was narrowly tailored to ensure the payments made it to a select few solar projects.

    A spokeswoman from the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, which oversees the solar credit program, confirmed collections from consumers won’t begin until Nov. 1. Five projects in Highland, Brown, Hardin and Vinton counties have been approved to receive payments within the program.

    Householder update

    Householder was arrested and indicted in July 2020. Lawmakers ousted him as Speaker of the House shortly thereafter. He was expelled as a member of the Ohio General Assembly in June of this year.

    He has maintained his innocence throughout. He’s scheduled to appear for a status conference before a federal judge Oct. 5.

    “I have not, not have I ever, taken a bribe or solicited or been solicited for taking a bribe. Never,” Householder said.

    Two alleged Householder co-conspirators — his political strategist Jeff Longstreth and lobbyist Juan Cespedes — pleaded guilty in October 2020 to one count each of racketeering. Neil Clark, a high power GOP lobbyist, was charged as well. He died by suicide earlier this year.

    In July, FirstEnergy admitted in court documents that it paid $61 million into an account that Householder controlled to pass HB 6. The company agreed to pay a $230 million penalty and plead guilty to a charge of wire fraud.

    The documents state the company paid $22 million to Sam Randazzo, an energy lawyer appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine to lead the PUCO, in the decade before his appointment. This includes a $4.3 million payment just before he assumed the post.

    In return, Randazzo allegedly used his chairmanship to shield PUCO from regulatory scrutiny that could cost it hundreds of millions. Randazzo denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime.

  • Utility and fossil fuel influence in Ohio goes beyond passage of bailout

    Utility and fossil fuel influence in Ohio goes beyond passage of bailout

    This article is provided by Eye on Ohio in partnership with Energy News Network

    Dark money loopholes remain, while people linked to utilities and fossil fuels hold public office or enjoy ongoing access to government officials.

    by Kathiann M. Kowalski

    Dark money loopholes remain in Ohio law, despite last month’s surgical repeal of part of the law at the heart of a $60 million corruption scandal. Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged in recent months, detailing the flow of money by groups engaged in the House Bill 6 scandal and showing close ties between current and former utility lobbyists and Gov. Mike DeWine, as well as various lawmakers.

    “We need to learn from our mistakes,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a group that advocates for more transparency and accountability in politics. She noted that the House Bill 6 case is just the latest in a line of corruption scandals that have rocked state politics in the past two decades.

    A federal complaint released last July alleged an unlawful conspiracy to elect lawmakers who would favor Rep. Larry Householder as House speaker, secure passage of House Bill 6 and defend it against a referendum. A court filing by FirstEnergy in March admits that millions of dollars went from one of its subsidiaries either directly or indirectly to Generation Now, the primary dark money group at the center of the alleged scheme, or to other entities alleged to have played roles. Some funds were paid at the direction of FirstEnergy Solutions, the document claims.

    In addition to promptly repealing the whole law, legislators should have pursued action to prevent such a situation from happening again, Turcer said. Instead, “there was not any indication in place during the summer of a path of how to make sure we don’t create a space for misdeeds.”

    Efforts by FirstEnergy and others to make political contributions through dark money organizations — 501(c)(4) nonprofits and some political for-profits that are not required to disclose their donors — have touched numerous entities with connections throughout the Ohio government, according to data from various sources.

    The Accountability Project is a national database that collects records of federal campaign contributions, grants from nonprofits, expenditures by political action committees and more. The database also identifies shared addresses and other links among individuals and organizations.

    Among other things, the database reveals that Generation Now’s address shown on a 2017 corporate filing was the same as that for co-defendant Jeff Longstreth and his business JPL & Associates. JPL & Associates was shown as the president and secretary on an October 2019 IRS filing by Generation Now.

    The Accountability Project information also indicates that in 2018 Generation Now and JPL & Associates did business at a Capitol Square office tower. The same suite address was used at various times that same year for Friends of Larry Householder, the Committee to Elect Bill Roemer, Harris for Ohio and  Barhorst for Ohio.

    In earlier years the same suite address had been used by the Coalition for Growth and Opportunity, which received money from an American Electric Power-funded group. The office suite is unoccupied now, but at some earlier point the suite also had been the office address for a bespoke tailoring business. (The company moved out of the space years ago, Eye on Ohio and the Energy News Network learned.)

    Nonetheless, utilities and fossil fuel interests seek to continue to tailor Ohio energy policies to their benefit. Among other things, most candidates elected in 2018 whose campaigns got money from the alleged HB 6 scheme were reelected in 2020. Their incumbent statuses would have given them a bump, according to David Anderson, policy and communications director for the Energy and Policy Institute. Federal filings indicate substantial additional spending for the last election cycle as well, he added.

    FirstEnergy and its political action committee reported more than $1.1 million in campaign donations for 2019 and 2020, primarily to Republicans, the National Institute on Money in Politics reports. Nearly half a million of that went to candidates in Ohio.

    Those reported amounts don’t include spending by any dark money groups the company or other energy companies with utilities in Ohio might have donated to. The Growth & Opportunity political action committee had spent money in early 2020 to influence several Ohio primaries, Anderson noted.

    Close ties

    DeWine signed HB 6 into law within hours of its passage in July 2019. Even after HB 6 passed, close ties have remained between utilities and fossil fuel interests, on the one hand, and leadership in Ohio’s legislative and executive branches.

    Since the federal complaint was released last July 21, DeWine has stood by Dan McCarthy, whom he appointed as his director of legislative affairs in early 2019. As a lobbyist at the Success Group in Columbus, McCarthy had long been active in state politics and has contributed to a variety of campaigns, as data from the Accountability Project shows.

    McCarthy was a registered lobbyist representing FirstEnergy in 2017 and 2018, when the events alleged in the HB 6 conspiracy began, according to data from the Ohio Lobbying Activity Center. He also was president of Partners for Progress, the FirstEnergy-funded “Energy Pass-Through” organization that allegedly funneled millions of dollars into efforts to pass and preserve HB 6.

    The bio released by DeWine’s office when he appointed McCarthy in 2019 shows that he had previously managed several political campaigns in addition to working for the Success Group. McCarthy resigned from Partners for Progress before assuming his current government position. 

    His former Success Group colleague McKenzie Davis was a director for Partners for Progress through at least 2019, according to a November 2020 IRS filing by the group. The report also shows R. Scott Davis as president and secretary, and lawyer Michael Van Buren at Calfee, Halter & Griswold in Cleveland as treasurer. 

    The IRS filing showed that $13 million went from Partners for Progress to Generation Now in 2019, plus additional amounts to other organizations for “political campaign intervention,” lobbying and “educating the public about utility options.” Funds from two of those dark money groups supported DeWine’s campaign, as well as an unsuccessful campaign by his daughter Alice DeWine, the Cincinnati Enquirer has reported.

    Other lawyers at Van Buren’s firm represented FirstEnergy in cases before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, including one begun after news of the HB 6 scandal broke, for the purpose of determining if funds from FirstEnergy’s utility ratepayers were spent on HB 6 activities. Attorneys from Jones Day are now counsel in some of those cases.

    “It looks a bit different when the lawyers who defend you work for the firm that was part of that political spending,” Anderson said. Van Buren and a colleague did not respond to an inquiry about the reason for the change.

    On call

    FirstEnergy was not the only utility with ongoing links to the governor’s office. An October 2019 email recently released by Common Cause Ohio last month shows that the DeWine-Husted campaign held a weekly finance call, even though they’re not up for reelection until next year. The call list included multiple people with ties to utilities and fossil fuels, including FirstEnergy lobbyist Josh Rubin of the CJR Group, Duke Energy Business Services lobbyist Chip Gerhardt of Government Strategies Group, and Ohio Coal Association lobbyist Richard Hillis of Governmental Policy Group. The Governmental Policy Group’s address has been used by several political action committees throughout the years, Accountability Project data show.

    Also on the DeWine-Husted finance call list was J.B. Hadden, who has been president of Empowering Ohio’s Economy, one of the dark money groups that had also paid money to Generation Now. As of last summer, American Electric Power had contributed a total of $8.7 million to Empowering Ohio’s Economy since 2015, including $700,000 in 2019, according to company spokesperson Scott Blake. “We will continue to legally and ethically advocate on behalf of our customers and our company,” Blake said.

    AEP’s vice president for external affairs, Tom Froehle, also has been a board member of Empowering Ohio’s Economy, dating back to 2016, Blake confirmed.

    Froehle and AEP Director of Government Affairs Maria Haberman met with Householder in February 2020, after HB 6 was law but before the scandal broke last summer, Anderson noted. Householder’s calendar didn’t indicate what the meeting was about.

    As for Empowering Ohio’s Economy, its 2019 tax filing showed more than half a million dollars going to Generation Now. Donations to several other organizations included a $25,000 contribution to the Ohio Governor’s Residence & Office Fund, which is yet another dark money group. It has spent nearly $200,000 on meetings at the residence “to promote better and more efficient government.”

    Another $2 million went from Empowering Ohio’s Economy to another dark money group, Open Road Path, in 2019 “to promote economic and business development within Ohio.” Hadden did not respond to a request for additional information for this article.

    Regulatory connections

    Anne Vogel, former managing director of AEP’s government affairs office, became DeWine’s assistant director for energy and natural resources starting in March 2019. By July, HB 6 was passed. 

    In December 2020, Vogel became a finalist to replace Sam Randazzo as chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Randazzo resigned the day after a FirstEnergy government filing stated that the company had paid $4 million in early 2019 to an entity apparently linked to Randazzo. After criticisms surfaced about last December’s list of PUCO nominees, DeWine ultimately asked for additional names and appointed Jenifer French to the post.

    The PUCO nominating council likewise has connections to utilities and fossil fuel interests. Chair Michael Koren was a registered lobbyist for FirstEnergy through 2019. He chaired the committee that nominated Randazzo for the PUCO in 2019. Ohio Lobbying Activity Center data shows Koren also has been a lobbyist for Columbia Gas and Boich Companies, which made its fortune in the coal industry.

    Randazzo’s calendar for the time he was PUCO chair shows multiple meetings with people from utility companies or their parent corporations, as well as with coal fleet lobbyist Michelle Bloodworth. 

    “I am unaware of any meeting in which a commissioner held a discussion of pending proceedings,” said PUCO spokesperson Matt Schilling, noting that meetings otherwise “could have been regarding any number of general energy or commercial transportation matters relative [to] the delivery of adequate, safe and reliable utility service.”

    Nonetheless, the Energy and Policy Institute’s Anderson said, the absence of detailed notations in the calendar presents “definitely a lot of potential conflicts.”

    Accountability Project data also shows that AEP’s Froehle, Randazzo and Scott Elisar, the PUCO’s current legislative and policy director, all had worked at the same law firm, McNees, Wallace & Nurick. The firm has long represented Industrial Energy Users-Ohio, which has pushed for limiting clean energy standards, and whose members have long enjoyed favorable rates from utilities.

    Still ahead

    Dark money loopholes made the alleged HB 6 scheme possible. “Dark money is a breeding ground for corruption,” former U.S. attorney David DeVillers said when the indictment was filed last July. The federal investigation continues, although the pandemic delayed some grand jury proceedings, he told the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Governing Board on March 16. In-person meetings of the grand jury have recently resumed, he noted.

    “[For] a lot of these cases that have been on the back burner, you can expect to see a lot more indictments coming,” DeVillers said.

    This year, House Bill 13 aims to address some dark money issues. A hearing will be held in the coming week, so there’s at least some potential for lawmakers to take action this session. But so far, Turcer said, “it’s just that they have completely dragged their feet.”

    __________________________________

    This story is part of a collaborative journalism project produced by the Energy News Network and Eye on Ohio, the Ohio Center for Investigative Journalism. Funding is provided by the Cleveland Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, and the Accountability Project at American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop.

    This article first appeared on Eye on Ohio and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

    This article provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism in partnership with the nonprofit Energy News Network. Please join our free mailing list or the mailing list for the Energy New Network as this helps us provide more public service reporting.