PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 8, 2020

Consumer Watchdog to PUCO: freeze $1.4 billion in FirstEnergy fees approved during former Chair Randazzo’s term

“Ohioans deserve the full story” about $4 million payment says Citizens Utility Board of Ohio

COLUMBUS—The Citizens Utility Board of Ohio (CUB Ohio) announced today that it has taken legal action asking the Public Utility Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to freeze, eliminate, or refund $1.4 billion in FirstEnergy fees imposed on Ohio consumers during former Chairman Sam Randazzo’s term of service, arguing that “all increases in charges to FirstEnergy customers resulting from House Bill 6 [HB 6] or from proceedings over which Chairman Randazzo presided are unjust, unreasonable, and in violation of law.”

Among other steps, the complaint asks that FirstEnergy be ordered to “to file a distribution rate case as soon as practicable in order to terminate the operation of their decoupling riders.”

CUB Ohio also requested corporate safeguards to prevent FirstEnergy from using funds collected from Ohio consumers to improperly influence regulatory and legislative decisions, noting concern that consumer funds may have been used by FirstEnergy or its affiliates to pay $60 million in alleged bribes and another $4 million to a company owned by a person matching Randazzo’s description around the time he was appointed to lead PUCO.

“We have reasonable cause to raise serious questions about potential ethics violations by former Chair Sam Randazzo, so decisions during his term that affected FirstEnergy must be reviewed, up to and including freezing, eliminating, and refunding $1.4 billion in fees they were awarded,” said Tom Bullock, executive director of CUB Ohio. “We owe it to Ohioans to get the facts and correct any rulings in which bias by the former Chair could have been a factor.”

While serving as PUCO Chair, Randazzo engaged in conduct favorable to FirstEnergy and its affiliates: by providing expert advice that substantially influenced the legislature as it drafted HB 6 and that facilitated its passage; and acting in his regulatory capacity to remove a limit on an unbalanced version of decoupling received by FirstEnergy under HB 6, effectively extending its duration.

The legal remedies requested in the CUB Ohio complaint include:

• making refundable those rates that were charged by FirstEnergy electric distribution utilities (EDUs) as a result of HB 6 or authorized by PUCO in a proceeding presided over by former Chairman Randazzo;

• requiring FirstEnergy EDUs to file a distribution rate case to terminate their decoupling riders under HB 6;

• nullifying and refunding all FirstEnergy EDU charges implemented as a result of HB 6 or resulting from proceedings conducted in violation of R.C. 102.03(C), (E), or (F);

• requiring FirstEnergy to refund to customers any amounts paid to Chairman Randazzo in violation of Ohio law; and

• modifying or revoking the FirstEnergy EDUs’ existing corporate separation plan because it does not ensure that political and lobbying activities of regulated and unregulated utilities are “fully separated.”

“Consumers are the ones stuck paying these expensive fee increases. Too many Ohioans have been hurt by the COVID public health crisis and shouldn’t have to pay them, given what has been revealed investigations into bribes and improper payments,” said Bullock. “The Commission can and should take action, well within its authority, to address these unjust and unreasonable charges.”

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