Attorney general sues to block nuclear bailout cash, JIM PROVANCE Toledo Blade, 13 Nov 20, COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on Friday filed suit to block the owner of two nuclear plants on Lake Erie from collecting $150 million a year in surcharges from customers that were set in motion by a law at the heart of a $61 millionStatehouse bribery scandal.
“The people of Ohio are about to be shaken down for money they should not pay and will never be able to get back,” reads the lawsuit filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.Beginning in January, the state will begin collecting surcharges on the monthly electricity bills of customers to subsidize the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Oak Harbor and the Perry plant east of Cleveland that have struggled to compete economically with cheaper
and abundant natural gas.
“The corrupt enterprise and its billion-dollar payout is no longer a theory, but an admitted fact,” the suit contends. “Recently, two members of the corrupt enterprise entered guilty pleas in federal court. Those actors were Energy Harbor’s H.B. 6 lobbyist, and the former speaker’s consigliere. These two guilty pleas connected the utility and the speaker.”
According to the plea deals, the scheme was to conceal cash received from Energy Harbor’s former parent company,FirstEnergy Corp., that was used to help elect state representatives deemed loyal to Mr. Householder. They later supportedhis election as speaker.
The scheme then continued to push House Bill 6 over the finish line and subsequently kill a petition effort to convince voters to repeal the law………