Friend
- it's hard to keep up with the $61 million bribery scandal rocking
the Statehouse.
Last Thursday, an hour before Larry Householder was removed
as speaker, he was formally indicted on a federal racketeering
charge.
The new Speaker of the House, Bob Cupp, has a lot to prove.
His first act as Speaker should be to call for an immediate and
clean repeal of HB 6 - nothing less is acceptable. He must show
Ohioans that he is not simply Householder 2.0. Please read our full statement.
Follow the money
If you want to get into the nitty gritty on exactly where
Householder and FirstEnergy spent all that money, please check out
this amazing interactive map that
breaks it down by PAC and voting district. It was created by the
Akron Beacon Journal and The Ohio Center for
Investigative Journalism:
Tracking all of FirstEnergy’s political
contributions is difficult, but if you want to delve even deeper,
journalist Emily Atkin has done an amazing amount of work to reveal
how extensive their donations are to
both parties across many states.
The "Company A" piggy bank
A Talking Points Memo article
explains how "Over and over, bank records show Company A
allegedly wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Generation Now,
as well as pass-through companies, at crucial moments — such as days
before the November 2018 elections."
It looks like our campaign prop that we hauled across Ohio
last year was more spot on than we could ever have
imagined:
Also the news broke last week that "Company B" referenced in
the FBI investigation is the now-bankrupt Ohio coal giant Murray
Energy.
Multiple bills have been introduced into the legislature to repeal
HB6, and we will keep you informed as we find out more about each
piece of legislation.
No one should lose access to their utilities right
now
FirstEnergy is the only Ohio electric utility that hasn’t
filed a plan for handling disconnections during Covid-19, due to lack
of oversight by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The looming
crisis for low-income ratepayers deserves as much attention as the HB6
scandal.
The company paid $60 million in bribes to bail out failing nuclear
and coal plants, but won't commit to a shutoff moratorium for
customers who can't pay their bills during a pandemic? They have the
money to keep the lights on. It's just not a
priority.FirstEnergy never needed the bailout
and actually had at least $61+ million to spare. Plus the first HB6
payout went to shareholders, not
operations.
We will continue to work to ensure that no one is left behind and
every legislator is held accountable.
Please help with a contribution of any size to keep our HB6 repeal
and utility accountability work going strong.
Thanks for sticking with us in the
fight!
Ohio Citizen
Action
http://www.ohiocitizen.org/
p.s. If you would like a concise, informed explanation of the
Larry Householder scandal, please listen to the author of Short
Circuiting Policy, Professor Leah Stokes on the podcast
Drilled.
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