(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is placing a roadblock in the way of FirstEnergy collecting $102 million in ill-gotten profits contained in House Bill 6, that will soon be paid by FirstEnergy customers.
This is in addition to the $150 million nuclear bailout also in HB6 that Yost stopped last month.
A motion was filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court asking the court to prevent FirstEnergy from implementing the rate increases levied against its customers contained in HB6.
“First we had to stop the collection of the fee created to line the pockets of Energy Harbor and now we are trying to stop the guaranteed profits for FirstEnergy and inappropriate rate increases to Ohioans,” Yost said. “It’s time for the court to shut the HB6 piggybank down.”
Within HB6 was a decoupling mechanism that only applied to FirstEnergy, which allowed the company to match its record-high income level from 2018 every year going forward regardless of how much electricity it sold anytime in the next decade. This guarantees FirstEnergy will receive its high-water-mark profits regardless of service levels, providing no accountability and abusing the concept of decoupling.
The injunction filed is necessary to protect FirstEnergy customers and to undue the harm that was corruptly put into HB6.
The latest injunction motion is based on the same legal theory as the one obtained against the nuclear bailout and is expected to succeed for the same reasons.
