FirstEnergy Corp sets goal to become carbon free by 2050

CLEVELAND » Amid intense scrutiny of the roles company officials played in an alleged $60 million bribery scheme to obtain a $1 billion bailout for two aging nuclear power plants, Ohio’s largest electric utility has announced a goal to become “carbon neutral” by 2050 while reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2030.

The announcement this week from Akronbased FirstEnergy came days after several top executives, including CEO Chuck Jones, were fired by the company’s independent board of directors for violating company policies and its code of ethics. FirstEnergy announced earlier this week that its chief legal officer and chief ethics officers had been “separated” from the company without explaining the reason for their departures.

Federal authorities have alleged that FirstEnergy secretly funded the effort to win passage of bailout legislation in July 2019 for the northern Ohio nuclear plants operated by a wholly owned FirstEnergy subsidiary at the time. A new independently owned company took control of the plants from the subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions, in February in a deal reached in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

FirstEnergy is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Ohio Elections Commission and a panel of independent members of the company’s board of directors.

The Public Uti l ities Commission of Ohio is hiring an independent auditor to review FirstEnergy’s corporate policies during the period the Ohio Legislature considered the bailout legislation and when federal authorities allege FirstEnergy bankrolled a $38 million campaign led by then-House Speaker Larry Householder to keep an anti- bailout referendum off the ballot.