The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Cities sue to block collection of House Bill 6 fees
Two of Ohio’s three largest cities are joining together in an effort to block collection of fees from the Ohio House Bill at the center of an alleged corruption scandal.
The cities of Columbus and Cincinnati Oct. 27 filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court stating the timing of these new fees — which are set to begin collection Jan. 1 —“could not be worse.” The cities argue there are more than combined 100,000 ratepayers in their communities that have already fallen behind on their utility bills because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Under House Bill 6, Ohio residential electric ratepayers will pay an additional 85 cents per year from 2021 to 2027 as part of an estimated $150 million per year collection to subsidize the state’s two nuclear power plants, including the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in North Perry.
The funds are also raised through fees to commercial and industrial electric ratepayers. Residential ratepayers across the state could also pay up to an additional $1.50 to subsidize two coal-powered electric plants run by Ohio Valley Energy Corp. One of those plants is in southern Ohio, and the other is based in Indiana.
“Utility companies in Cincinnati, Columbus, and across Ohio (including FirstEnergy itself) are preparing to resume service disconnections,” the lawsuit states. “Adding these new fees to Ohioans’ utility bills is unfair, unjust, unethical, and irresponsible, especially given that the country is in the midst of a pandemic, and, even more than that, winter is coming.”
House Bill 6 is the bill at the center of an alleged $61 million bribery scheme. Now former Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder, R- Glenford, and others are facing federal charges for allegedly violating “the racketeering statute through honest services wire fraud, receipt of millions of dollars in bribes and money laundering.”
Federal investigators allege that Generation Now
was incorporated in February 2017 as a “social welfare entity purporting to promote energy independence and economic development,” but was secretly controlled by Householder.
Millions of dollars from the electric company known in the complaint as “Company A” were allegedly used to support Householder’s bid to become speaker, to support House candidates believed to back him for the position and for personal benefit.
In the aftermath of
Householder’s arrest in July, both Republican and Democratic state lawmakers have introduced bills to repeal House Bill 6. New Speaker of the House Bob Cupp, RLima, formed a committee of bi-partisan lawmakers to examine repeal and replacement efforts.
That committee — the Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight — met five times, all in September. No other meetings are currently scheduled and House Bill 6 remains in effect. The committee’s last meeting was held Sept. 30.
Attorneys for Columbus and Cincinnati allege that House Bill 6 is an “unconstitutional tax” and that the “scheme to corrupt the legislative process demonstrates a clear violation of the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act.
Named as defendants in suit are FirstEnergy Corp., Ohio Public Utilities Commission chairman Sam Randazzo and Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague.
A FirstEnergy spokesperson said in an Oct. 27 email that the company had not yet been served the lawsuit and would need more time to review the complaint before commenting.
Ohio’s two nuclear plants are owned by Energy Harbor. The company was previously called FirstEnergy Solutions. The company filed for bankruptcy in March 2018 and had plants to shut down both plants by 2021 if it did not receive subsidies.
FirstEnergy Solutions officials emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy Feb. 27 as Energy Harbor. The former FirstEnergy Solutions was spun off of FirstEnergy as part of the bankruptcy reorganization plan. FirstEnergy no longer owns or is affiliated with its former subsidiary.
The cities’ lawsuit is the second House Bill 6-related lawsuit filed by a government entity in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost last month filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the nuclear plants from receiving House Bill 6 funds.
That lawsuit does not seek to stop House Bill 6’s additional charges appearing on ratepayer electric bills. The money would be held in the treasury and its ultimate fate would be determined by the Ohio legislature, Yost said in a Sept. 23 news conference.
The suit by Columbus and Cincinnati seeks to prevent those funds from being collected altogether.
“Taking action to block those fees from appearing on ratepayers’ utility bills is the only way to ‘address the harm that Ohio utility ratepayers still face as they pay into a corporate bailout fund that was secured through fraud, deceit and intimidation,’” the cities argue in their suit.