(OH-August 27, 2020) Today, the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) once again delayed the expected reconsideration of the Lake Erie Icebreaker Wind demonstration project. This move postponed the discussion of the project even further, despite the call of 32 Northeast Ohio legislators who support the 500 jobs and $253 million the project would bring to the local economy.

This comes on the heels of yesterday’s Public Utilities Commission of Ohio's (PUCO) decision to approve the ironically named House Bill 6 Clean Air Fund charge that will provide FirstEnergy and its dark money campaign with an annual reward of $150 million to bailout its two failing nuclear plants. While this bailout was bought and paid for by $61 million in FirstEnergy bribes, the policy itself will be paid for by hard-working Ohio consumers. The PUCO decision comes almost immediately following the Ohio Senate President’s announcement that members would return to Columbus early next week to repeal House Bill 6.

The order resulting from this PUCO decision further states that the Commission will not conduct a bill impact analysis beyond the staff recommendation because the “simplicity of the math” should allow parties to identify impacts for themselves. This dismissive move ensures that the Ohioans footing the bill for FirstEnergy’s bad decisions can expect no oversight or accountability from the state. Essentially, they have invited Ohio consumers to pull out a calculator and figure it out for themselves.

Both the PUCO and the Ohio Power Siting Board are run by Commission Chair Sam Randazzo. Randazzo is Governor Mike DeWine’s hand-picked Chair, despite the fact that he spent decades as an anti-clean energy lobbyist. He has led both entities to recent decisions that fly squarely in the face of Governor DeWine’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy, and has hung a reputation on Ohio as a backward state not interested in the economic development and job growth that results from clean energy investment.

Sam Randazzo’s ties to FirstEnergy are quickly coming to light. Randazzo’s company, Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio, is on FirstEnergy’s payroll and turned up in First Energy Solutions’ bankruptcy filings as a company used by them for professional services. Former Speaker Larry Householder, now indicted in the $61 million bribery scandal involving FirstEnergy, put Sam Randazzo’s long-time business partner on the PUCO Nominating Council just before Randazzo was nominated. Then, Randazzo gave that business partner a job at the PUCO. Further, the chair of the PUCO Nominating Council was a FirstEnergy lobbyist.

Randazzo appears to be checking the boxes for his friends at FirstEnergy. Ensuring the adoption of the House Bill 6 charge just days before the Senate plans to return to Columbus to repeal the legislation, and hamstringing reconsideration efforts of a precedent-setting renewable energy project for the state are not the actions of a public official who is carrying out an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy. He appears to be carrying out a FirstEnergy political agenda. For Sam Randazzo, it is business as usual.

Ohio Citizen Action and the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance call on Governor Mike DeWine to change the way we do business. Replace Sam Randazzo now. Learn more about Randazzo’s anti-clean energy history at www.samrandazzo.com.

-- Rachael Belz, press release, Ohio Citizen Action, Ohio Consumers Power Alliance