PUCO expands FirstEnergy rate audit Week Of 12/27/2021

By: 
Larry Limpf

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has decided to expand the scope of its ongoing investigations into FirstEnergy Ohio utility companies to include a “side deal” the companies allegedly failed to disclose.
In its order, the PUCO said information uncovered during its four investigations indicates FirstEnergy failed to disclose the apparent deal it entered in 2015 in exchange for an industrial energy group dropping its opposition to the utilities’ then electric security rate plan proceeding.
Ohio law requires disclosure of such agreements, according to the PUCO.
The PUCO’s order indicates the utility companies may have violated the law by failing to disclose an amendment to an agreement with the consulting firm, Sustainability Funding Alliance, which was owned by Sam Randazzo, a former chairman of the PUCO.
As of the PUCO’s recent order, Randazzo has not been charged with a crime. In a deferred prosecution agreement, FirstEnergy Corp. stated it had paid him and his firm millions over 2014-2018 and shortly before he was appointed to chair the PUCO in 2019.
The PUCO order broadens the commission’s review to consider the issue of the non-disclosure but it also pauses that portion of the case while related criminal cases by the U.S. Attorney’s office and lawsuits by the Ohio Attorney General are pending.
“Today’s action is just one example of our responsibility to follow the facts wherever they may lead and investigate matters that are within our jurisdiction over utility rates and service,” said Jennifer French, PUCO chairperson. “This commitment holds true in this case as well as in the three additional investigations opened by the commission. Our decision today to bifurcate and stay this issue and portion of the proceedings ensures that our investigations will not interfere with the investigations by the U.S. Attorney or the action brought by the Ohio Attorney
General.”
The PUCO’s investigations are all related to FirstEnergy’s Ohio utilities and the passage of House Bill 6.
Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation in the spring that repealed parts of House Bill 6 that was passed in 2019 but was later linked to a $61 million bribery and corruption scheme to help secure the bill’s passage.
An email message left for comment with FirstEnergy was not returned.

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