CINCINNATI — Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder spent possibly his last moments as a free man around 2:30 p.m. Thursday and they couldn’t have been pleasant.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Black gave the Glenford Republican the maximum possible sentence of 20 years and then ordered blue-shirted U.S. Marshals to immediately take him into custody. He rose, put his hands behind his back, the marshals cuffed him and led the once-powerful pol away.
But before that humiliation, the judge blistered Householder for being the ringleader of a racketeering scandal in which Akron-based FirstEnergy paid him more than $59 million in bribes in exchange for a $1.3 billion bailout, most of which was intended to save two failing nuclear plants in Northern Ohio.
Ratepayers could have used that money for things like education, health care or to start businesses, the judge said.
“You handed that money to suits in private jets,” Black said.
The judge made the speech and imposed the sentence after saying Householder clearly perjured himself during his criminal trial, which lasted from late January until mid-March.
In it, Householder claimed to barely know FirstEnergy executives as federal prosecutors put on a mountain of evidence that Householder flew on their corporate jets, sat in their luxury boxes and dined in fancy restaurants as they plowed tens of millions of the corporation’s dollars into dark-money accounts.
“You conned the people of Ohio and you tried to con the jury, too,” Black said in his gravely voice as Householder, clad in a gray suit and red tie, slumped his bulk back in his chair.
The money from FirstEnergy and one of its subsidiaries was used to elect fellow Republicans in 2018 who would vote to make Householder speaker in early 2019. More than $500,000 of it was used to pay off Householder’s credit card bills, settle a lawsuit and to repair a house he owned in Florida.
Tens of millions more went to pass the corrupt bailout — House Bill 6 — and to fund a thuggish campaign to thwart a citizen-initiated repeal.
Earlier in the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Glatfelter said Householder used FirstEnergy’s dark money to crush a “citizen veto” and “because of this House Bill 6 remains in effect today.”
That’s also because Republican supermajorities in Ohio’s gerrymandered legislature have refused to repeal the corrupt law even after arrests were made, and as they try to make it virtually impossible for citizens to initiate amendments to the Ohio Constitution.
Also arrested in the scandal were lobbyists Juan Cespedes and Jeffrey Longstreth — who cooperated with prosecutors within days of their arrests — and Neil Clark, who died by suicide. Former Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges is slated for sentencing at 11 a.m. today, Friday.
Steven Bradley, Householder’s attorney, sought leniency for his client. Referring to the possibility of a 20-year sentence, he said “That is effectively a life sentence for Larry Householder given his age and health situation.”
Householder is 64 and overweight.
Bradley argued that his client was around 60 when the racketeering conspiracy began in late 2016 and that prior to that, Householder did “innumerable” good deeds “for decades.” A 20-year sentence would “effectively give no consideration” to those good deeds, Bradley said.
But when he spoke on his own behalf, Householder appeared to do more to harm his case than to help it, just as he did at trial.
“My greatest commitment is to my creator… My next commitment is to my family,” he read from a prepared statement as he stood at the podium.
Householder said that in the course of 38 years of marriage, “I can count on one hand” the number of nights he spent away from his wife, Taundra. Householder also described the crushing pain they suffered when they lost a four-year-old daughter.
But then he pushed his claims past the point of plausibility.
He said Taundra was planning to retire from her teaching position and next year, when he turns 65, he wanted to retire as well, saying he planned to “hang up my suit and tie.”
Householder made that statement in the same courtroom where, only three months earlier, prosecutors put on testimony and displayed bank records and written messages from early 2020 that showed FirstEnergy and AEP putting money into dark money groups intended to fund an effort to change the state’s term limits so Householder could stay in office for as long as 16 more years.
The former House speaker also implied that he wanted a lenient sentence not for himself, but for his family. Taundra, he said, would be alone while “I’ll be in a cold cell hours away.”
But what might really have set Judge Black off was Householder’s profession of selfless public service.
“My life has been a total and full dedication to making life better for those I serve,” he said.
Black described voters who put out Householder yard signs, donated their hard-earned money to his campaigns, and pushed a button for him in the voting booth.
“I’m not talking about some corporation or the (former FirstEnergy CEO) Chuck Joneses of the world,” Black said. Householder’s constituents who supported him “were saying, ‘I’m choosing to trust you,’ and you betrayed that trust,” the judge said.
Black used Householder’s own words to give the lie to his claims. He quoted several recordings of Householder that were surreptitiously made during the conspiracy and played at trial.
“If you’re going to fk with me, I’m going to fk with your kids,” Householder said in one of them.
“Bottom line, you were a bully,” the judge said.
If the federal racketeering statute didn’t cap sentences for a single count at 20 years, sentencing guidelines would have recommended life for the former House speaker, Black said. One reason for that is because Householder’s use of a mountain of hidden corporate money to elect a legislature, pass an exponentially bigger bailout for the company, and to crush a citizen repeal is “an assault on democracy,” the judge said.
Black explained the special harm done by public corruption like that committed by Householder and his co-conspirators. To do so, he quoted former President Theodore Roosevelt, who ironically advocated the citizen-initiated amendment process in Ohio that Householder’s former Republican colleagues in state government are now trying to gut.
“There can be no crime more serious than bribery,” Roosevelt said in a 1903 message. “Other offenses violate one law while corruption strikes at the foundation of all law.”
When Borges, the former GOP chair, is sentenced today, it’s unclear what he’ll face. His involvement in the conspiracy was considerably less than Householder’s, but Judge Black showed that he’s not much in the mood for leniency when it comes to Ohio’s corrupt political culture.
Also uncertain is when — or if — others might be charged.
Former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and Vice President Micheal Dowling — as well as former FirstEnergy Solutions President John Kiani — directed the flood of corporate dollars into the Householder-controlled dark money groups, according to prosecutors.
And FirstEnergy admitted in a deferred prosecution agreement that it paid a $4.3 million bribe to Sam Randazzo just as Gov. Mike DeWine was appointing him to chair the Public Utilities Commission. Randazzo the helped draft the corrupt bailout law, according to trial testimony.
On the steps of the Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse just after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker was asked when or whether those men or others might be charged.
“We continue to look through evidence and we continue to listen to recordings and speak to individuals, so if something’s there we’re going to go there, too, and address it,” he said.
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.
The arrest of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others in July revealed how the use of dark money organizations enabled an alleged $60 million conspiracy to sway elections and provide costly bailouts to noncompetitive nuclear and coal plants.
As federal and state court cases move forward, questions remain about what can be done to restore confidence in the legislature and to prevent similar situations in the future.
“Dark money is really how special interests win right now,” said Jay Costa, executive director at Voters’ Right To Know. When corporations use shell groups to hide their political spending, they “gain a level of credibility they wouldn’t otherwise have,” he explained. “I like to think of it as the ‘Wizard of Oz’ effect.”
In other words, voters don’t get to see who’s behind the curtain.
Two months after the federal government’s criminal complaint and indictment in July, Ohio Attorney General David Yost has filed a state court lawsuit. The complaint alleges a “pattern of corrupt activity,” and seeks injunctive relief to prevent FirstEnergy, FirstEnergy Solutions, Energy Harbor and others from reaping benefits from the bailouts under House Bill 6. A hearing on a preliminary motion for that relief is currently scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2.
Meanwhile, it’s unclear whether Ohio lawmakers will actually repeal House Bill 6, the bailout law passed as a result of the alleged conspiracy. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers called for a swift repeal in late July and early August. However, leadership in the Ohio House has so far refused to allow a full House vote on any pending repeal bills.
‘Dragging their feet’
Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus
“They’re just dragging their feet,” said Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus. “We have 58 members of the legislature who are willing to repeal HB 6 right now.”
Instead, Speaker Robert Cupp, R-Lima, has referred the bill to a House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight. So far, those hearings have largely been a general review of the pros and cons of HB 6, rather than a focused oversight of the alleged corruption that led to its passage and whether it should be repealed in order to repair any claimed harm to public trust in the legislature’s integrity.
“The only way that we can prove that Ohio is not for sale is by repealing HB 6,” Leland said. “The polling we’ve seen shows that people by an overwhelming margin are going to punish those people who have voted for HB 6 and have done nothing to repeal it.” Early and absentee voting in Ohio begins on Oct. 6.
“Our legislators are supposed to act in the public interest,” said political scientist Leah Stokes at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Corporations’ interests may sometimes conflict. But, she adds, “it’s really politicians’ and regulators’ job not to be listening to those special interests. That basic responsibility of democracy has failed in Ohio with House Bill 6.”
A straight repeal would mostly restore Ohio energy law to before HB 6 became effective, subject to some follow-up regulatory matters before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. A quick replacement could potentially reenact all or much of the law, which also gutted the state’s clean energy standards.
Advocates say that rushing to ram through anything more than a simple repeal this year would either just repeat bad policy or create more problems, even aside the alleged conspiracy’s past influence on the current makeup of the Ohio House of Representatives. Even at that, a repeal bill would now need either an emergency clause or an injunction sought by the state attorney general in order to stop the nuclear subsidies slated to start in January. The committee adjourned on Sept. 30 and no additional meetings are currently scheduled.
HB 6 “is so questionable at this moment. The vehicle itself and the way it was sold is all just a pack of lies,” said Rachael Belz, executive director of Ohio Citizen Action. “We need them to repeal it, and then we need to go from there.” And that second step will take time, she said.
“It’s complicated and complex legislation and policy. And we have to get it right,” said Chris Neme, a principal and co-founder of Energy Futures Group. “Passing a bill in less than a couple of months like the way HB 6 was just leads us down the road of unintended consequences.”
Shining a light on dark money
The bigger question is how to prevent similar abuses in the future. Utilities and fossil fuel interests have given heavily to Ohio political campaigns since the state enacted a 1999 law calling for competition in electricity generation. And the level of giving went up dramatically once a competitive market actually began to develop in the state.
Utilities’ political spending has continued during this election season. FirstEnergy spokesperson Jennifer Young said that its political action committee has since canceled campaign donations it had originally reported as going out in July shortly before Householder’s arrest.
Campaign donations shown for August have in fact been sent out, Young said. FirstEnergy has denied any wrongdoing in connection with its political donations or the alleged Householder scandal.
Meanwhile, a 2010 Supreme Court case, Citizens United, “really opened up the floodgates of fossil fuel and electric utility influence over politics,” Stokes said. Utilities’ political spending is “particularly pernicious,” in her view, because customers “have to buy from these companies” to get electricity delivered to their homes.
At the same time, reporting requirements currently apply only to immediate spenders on political issues and campaigns. They don’t reach all the way up the chain to the original source of the money.
“It’s basically this Russian nesting doll scenario, where you have one donor giving to another donor, giving to another donor, to get to the person who finally spends the money to influence the voters,” Costa explained.
In the case of HB 6, money flowed into Generation Now from multiple sources, with a lion’s share allegedly originating with Company A — understood to be FirstEnergy — and its subsidiaries, according to the federal complaint.
Some of the money in turn then went to a political action committee. Or, it went to other organizations that directly funded pro-HB 6 ads. One such ad claimed a debunked Chinese conspiracy was behind last year’s failed effort to put a referendum on the law on the ballot this fall. A for-profit group called Ohioans for Energy Security paid for that ad. When asked last year, lawyers at the firm that set up the corporation, Isaac Wiles, would not answer questions about the source of its funding.
“The notion that dark money is something some people don’t like is not part of the elements of the crime,” Mark Weaver, an attorney at that firm, said at a Columbus Metropolitan Club forum after news broke about the Householder arrest.
Asked if there was too much money sloshing around at the statehouse, he said it’s “a lot of money, no doubt,” but it “pales in comparison” to the amount that Americans spend on Halloween candy and costumes every year. And he said that the First Amendment protects the right to conduct political speech anonymously.
“Of course, state and local governments may (depending on how they draft) pass additional 501(c)4 disclosure requirements that could meet constitutional scrutiny,” Weaver later added.
Ian Vandewalker, Ian PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Brennan Center for Justice
“There is no absolute right to anonymous speech,” said attorney Ian Vandewalker at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. Elections are treated differently from general speech, because of the overriding interest in making sure elections function properly, he explained at a panel organized by the League of Women Voters of Ohio.
“That requires informed voters. And it requires policies to not be able to cheat the public,” Vandewalker said. “And so those interests require that there be a level of transparency.”
“No regulation, no law, no set of ethical rules substitutes for American voters paying attention to who’s running for office — pressing them hard on what they stand for, looking closely at the issues, and going into the ballot box having done your homework,” Weaver said.
“The reason that information is important and transparency is important is so that voters are educated,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio. “You can’t make the argument that voters need to be better educated but you shouldn’t give them actual education. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Moreover, disclosure needs to be timely, said Heather Taylor-Miesle, executive director for the Ohio Environmental Council. In the case of HB 6, Generation Now didn’t report its 2017 spending to the Internal Revenue Service until late 2019. By then, millions more had been spent to influence the 2018 elections, the passage of HB 6, and the failed referendum effort against it.
Pending bills
Several bills introduced by Democratic and Republican lawmakers could make a strong start toward improved disclosure, including HB 737, HB 739, and SB 347. Those bills should be broadened to include digital media, as well as more traditional campaign spending, Turcer said.
The bills should also call for disclosure not only of the name of an organization, but the identity of the top three original donors of funding, Turcer added in her Sept. 16 testimony in support of SB 347. “Otherwise, wealthy special interests will attempt to avoid disclosure by creating pop-up shell groups,” she said.
And while Ohio voters won’t know who’s behind all the groups funding attack ads or other political spending this election season, information is available about how lawmakers voted on HB 6. The Akron Beacon Journal has also compiled some information on how some funds were used in the 2018 Ohio House campaigns.
“People should contact their legislators about HB 6” if they want to speak out about the issue, Stokes said, noting that the law passed with support from a mix of both Republicans and Democrats.
“When the public is outraged about an issue and really shows up, these issues get reversed,” Stokes added. “There’s a lot of leverage right now.”
[Note: the original version of this story took additional comments made by Mr. Weaver and summarized them to help the story flow better and to highlight the most relevant points. Mr. Weaver contacted Eye on Ohio and the Energy News Network after publication expressing his concern that the summary was not an accurate representation of his public comments. While we do not share that view, we are happy to share the full text from which that summary was taken. We know our readers are smart and can draw their own conclusions regarding their meaning. Beneath this article is that text, as well as a link to the entire video.]
Mark Weaver: Blaming Citizens United for this I think is wrongheaded. The New York Times, it’s sort of been proven that their collusion story about Russia has fallen completely apart and yet I don’t blame the First Amendment for the right to print what they printed. I think they had a right to print all that. I think it was substantively wrong, but I wouldn’t go after their ability to print that stuff.
And so what the Supreme Court said in Citizens United was, if a few of us get together and want to form a group to communicate, we ought to have a right to do that under the First Amendment.
And a lot of donors are looking at what’s happening in America right now with the doxxing, or the releasing of personal information and targeting people for shame. So that’s why some donors don’t want to give. Now some may have less noble notions for wanting to keep their money and their name private. But we saw what happened to Amy Acton for example where her personal home was targeted by protesters– that’s just wrong.
The notion that- I disagree with you so I’m going to personally vilify you and show up at your house where your family or your children are- so many donors see that as part of 2020 current affairs and so many of them want to avoid that. And I know not everyone has that reason.
Mike Thompson: But the problem comes in not just that somebody gives $500 to a candidate or a cause they believe in. It’s that somebody gives– $61 million or $35 million, let’s be conservative, and we don’t know that’s happening. Is there a middle ground where we can say, okay I can protect your identity, your First Amendment rights, but you can’t have THAT much influence?
Weaver: Well, not Constitutionally, no. It’s not just Citizens United. There was a case out of Ohio called McIntyre vs. the Ohio Elections Commission. This is the 7-2 Supreme Court case that said it’s legal to keep yourself anonymous when spending politically, based out of Ohio, in Westerville, Mrs. McIntyre. I used to teach the case. This morning I looked at it again and I had forgotten about this quote. This is not a close call. 7-2. This is Supreme court on anonymous speech: “It’s not a pernicious, fraudulent practice but an honorable tradition of advocacy and of dissent.”
And they pointed to the Federalist Papers that were written anonymously, to avoid scrutiny of the authors and focus on the ideas. So this notion of anonymous speech is one that’s protected by Supreme Court precedent.
Thompson: Laura, there are efforts at the statehouse to make it more transparent. Is it just lip service or are they serious efforts?
Laura Bischoff: You know it’s interesting. I do think the conditions are probably better now for reform than they were six months ago. So, there’s a couple of different bills pending. One is House Bill 737, which is sponsored by Gayle Manning, a Republican from North Royalton, and Jessica Miranda, a Democrat from Cleveland. And it’s got the support of the Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose. And it would require, if you’re going to have a 501c(4) that’s spending in Ohio on political matters then it would require reporting through the state. Louis Brandeis said that the best disinfectant is sunshine. And so, this kind of works on that premise– transparency and disclosure will help clean it up.
Thompson: Derrick, It comes down to the Supreme Court. And the courts have said money equals speech. How much money? We have unlimited amounts of Free Speech. We can stand on a street corner, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and as long as we don’t yell fire in a crowded theatre we can do all we want. Should that same apply to the amount of money someone can give to a campaign? Or to a political cause?
Derrick Clay: Well you know if you have the money to give it, that’s your discretion whether you want to give that money to a c(4). You know, right now we’re under the law from that Citizens United case where people can give unlimited amounts of money to a c(4) nonprofit. So until that court case is overturned or challenged, then that’s the law of the land that we all have to abide by unfortunately.
Thompson: Is it too much money sloshing around at the statehouse? And you guys [points at Weaver and Clay] have both advocated for groups, and helped raise money and spent money that’s been raised. I mean, you’re part of the system-
Weaver: It’s a lot of money, no doubt. But when you look at what America spends on Halloween candy and costumes every year it pales in comparison. There’s lots of money done for lots of things.
Halloween candy and costumes don’t have the protection of the First Amendment. Remember, the Supreme Court has been very clear: the speech that aggravates us the most gets the most protection. And when you’re laying out what’s protected, political speech is the highest. And so whatever laws get passed, and I’m interested to read the details, and I’m interested in whatever laws are being put out there, they will have to withstand First Amendment scrutiny just like the news organizations represented today.
This article first appeared on Eye on Ohio and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Make no mistake – the $61 million came from Company A’s ratepayers and ultimately extorted from every residential and commercial electrical utility user in Ohio. The racketeering scheme of lies and deception corrupted Ohio citizen’s ability to overturn corrupt legislation at the ballot box. – David Miller, Loveland Magazine Publisher
By Marty Schladen The Ohio Capital Journal and David Miller/LovelandMagazine
ddd
Cincinnati, Ohio – Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, four political operatives and a dark-money group were charged Tuesday in a criminal complaint that an Ohio energy company paid them $61 million to get a $1.5 billion nuclear bailout from taxpayers.
Read the Press Release issued by the Department of Justice
Neil Clark, a lobbyist who owns Grant Street Consulting – Photo from Grant Street Consulting who exclaim, “Clark’s decades of experience and role in shaping Ohio’s political landscape makes him an indispensable resource to Ohio’s elected leaders, to whom he often serves as a trusted and highly sought after campaign advisor.”
All are charged with racketeering, which carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
David M. DeVillers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio
The alleged conspiracy, which revolved around the bailout of two failing nuclear plants in Northern Ohio, is “likely the largest bribery and money-laundering scheme ever in the state of Ohio,” David M. DeVillers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
Shortly after the press conference, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called on his fellow Republican to step down.
“I am deeply concerned about the allegations of wrongdoing in the criminal complaint issued today by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” DeWine, who last year signed the bailout into law, said in a written statement. “Every American has the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Because of the nature of these charges, it will be impossible for Speaker Householder to effectively lead the Ohio House of Representatives; therefore, I am calling on Speaker Householder to resign immediately. This is a sad day for Ohio.”
The criminal complaint says that “Company A,” the former FirstEnergy Solutions of Akron, worked to save its failing nuclear plants by funneling $61 million into Generation Now, a 501(c)(4) “dark money” group controlled by Householder.
On September 9, 2019, President Donald Trump nominated DeVillers for the United States Attorney in the Southern District of Ohio. The Senate confirmed the nomination in October, and DeVillers took his oath on November 1, 2019.
“Make no mistake, this is Larry Householder’s 501(c)(4),” the U.S. attorney said.
The money was used for three general purposes, the complaint said. First it was used to build “Team Householder” through campaign contributions and other measures that helped Householder win the speakership in 2019.
“In exchange for payment from Company A, Householder’s enterprise helped pass House Bill 6, legislation described by an enterprise member as a billion-dollar ‘bailout’ that saved from closure two failing nuclear power plants in Ohio affiliated with company A,” the complaint said
The money was also used for the personal benefit of Householder and the other conspirators, DeVillers said. Householder got about $500,000, he said.
Despite the companies claims of poverty, the interests behind the bailout spent millions — much of it in the form of hard-to-trace dark money on campaign contributions, a xenophobic ad campaign and then on an aggressive effort to stymie a petition drive to repeal the bailout DeWine signed into law a year ago.
And the money was used to fend off a petition effort to repeal HB6, going so far as to buy plane tickets for and pay $1,000 each to people circulating it to get out of town, DeVillers said.
The federal prosecutor said that it was crucial to keep the investigation secret until Tuesday. Now it begins a new phase that might be causing some lawmakers, energy executives and some others to lose sleep.
“We are not done with this case,” he said. “There were things we couldn’t do before. People we couldn’t interview. People we couldn’t subpoena. Documents and search warrants we couldn’t execute.
“As of this morning there are a lot of FBI agents knocking on a lot of doors asking a lot of questions, serving lots of subpoenas. That’s going to go on for days.”
“It takes courage for citizens to assist law enforcement in the ways detailed in the affidavit,” U.S. Attorney David M. DeVillers said. “We are grateful to those who felt a moral duty to work together with agents in bringing to light this alleged, significant public corruption.”
House Bill 6 is adding $1.5 billion in additional taxpayer bailouts to the $10.2 billion that Akron-based FirstEnergy Solutions and its former parent company, FirstEnergy Corp, have received from taxpayers since 1999. Most of the funds have gone to prop up the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants in Northern Ohio.
The company that owns the plants was renamed Energy Harbor after emerging from bankruptcy earlier this year.
Despite the companies claims of poverty, the interests behind the bailout spent millions — much of it in the form of hard-to-trace dark money on campaign contributions, a xenophobic ad campaign and then on an aggressive effort to stymie a petition drive to repeal the bailout DeWine signed into law a year ago.
The interests behind the nuclear bailout also contributed heavily to the effort at the beginning of 2019 to elect Householder speaker. He ended up winning the support of 26 Republicans and 26 Democrats, His opponent, Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, got the votes of 34 Republicans and 12 Democrats.
The Ohio Republican Party didn’t respond Tuesday to requests for comment.
The Ohio Democratic Party didn’t respond when asked about the fact that Householder wouldn’t have worn the speakership without Democratic votes. However, the party chairman, David Pepper called on Householder to step down as speaker.
“As the U.S. attorney indicated, this investigation is ongoing, and we will wait to hear all the facts as they emerge. However, given what was revealed in today’s complaint and the taint of corruption over Ohio legislative activity, we believe Speaker Householder should step down from leadership immediately as he avails himself of his due process rights,” Pepper said in a written statement.
House Bill 6, which passed 51-38, was quickly signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine. Under the bill, from 2021 until 2027, every Ohio electricity customer will have to pay a new monthly surcharge that ranges from 85 cents for residential customers to $2,400 for large industrial plants. Ratepayers around the state would also have to chip in up to $1.50 monthly (and up to $1,500 per month for commercial and industrial users) to subsidize coal plants in Ohio and Indiana run by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation.- cleveland.com
Starting next January, ratepayers around the state would also have to chip in up to $1.50 monthly (and up to $1,500 per month for commercial and industrial users) to subsidize coal plants in Ohio and Indiana run by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation.
This isn’t Householder’s first encounter with federal law enforcement.
In 2006, the Justice Department told the FBI that it wouldn’t pursue charges against Householder. The FBI had been told two years earlier that Householder had used his post as head of the House Republican Campaign Committee to overpay some vendors in exchange for kickbacks from them.
Nor is Householder, 61, of Glenford, the first Ohio House speaker to find himself in the FBI’s crosshairs. In 2018, Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, a Republican, resigned amid an FBI probe of his overseas travel. He has not been charged, but the investigation remains open.
