FirstEnergy refusing to return subsidy cash to customers

An Ohio electric company under scrutiny for its role in what federal authorities say was a $60 million bribery and corruption scheme has told state energy regulators that it should not have to refund customers $30 million collected from a revenue guarantee provision included in a tainted energy bill.

The millions in question were paid by customers of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp.’s three Ohio electric utility companies, guaranteeing that they receive the same amount of annual revenue they collected in 2018, a year of extreme weather and high electric use.

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel earlier this month asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to order FirstEnergy to “remedy what would be a miscarriage or perversion of justice” if the company would be allowed to keep the rate guarantee money.

“As we see it, the PUCO or the legislature shouldn’t allow FirstEnergy to walk away from the House Bill 6 scandal with even a penny of Ohioans’ money, and certainly not with the $30 million it charged consumers for recession-proofing,” Consumers’ Counsel Bruce Weston said in a statement.

FirstEnergy attorneys responded by saying the consumers’ counsel legal strategy is flawed and there is no basis for returning the money.

Former CEO Chuck Jones told investors after the passage of the energy bill in July 2019 that the rate guarantee made a portion of the company “recession proof.”