** Vice President John Skory exits FirstEnergy after ‘violation’ ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
By Dave Anderson on Nov 03, 2022 04:44 pm
A spokesperson for FirstEnergy said today that Vice President of Utility Operations John Skory left the utility after a violation of company policy.
“John Skory, formerly vice president of Utility Operations for FirstEnergy, is no longer with the company following a violation of company policy,” Jennifer Young, a manager of external affairs for FirstEnergy, told the Energy and Policy Institute in an email this morning.
“Since this is a personnel matter, we’re unable to share further specific information, though I can confirm this is not related to HB 6,” Young said.
House Bill 6 is at the center of an ongoing ([link removed]) investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. A number of FirstEnergy executives and directors have left the company amidst the fallout from the investigation, including former CEOs Charles Jones ([link removed]) and Steven Strah ([link removed]) .
The 2019 Ohio energy law included a now-repealed $1 billion ratepayer bailout of two nuclear power plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), a then-bankrupt FirstEnergy subsidiary that later emerged as a separate new company now called Energy Harbor. HB 6 also rolled back Ohio’s renewable energy and energy standards for electric utilities, bailed out ([link removed]) several coal plants connected to FES ([link removed]) , and included a controversial “decoupling” provision ([link removed]) that locked in FirstEnergy’s annual earnings in Ohio at ratepayers’ expense.
FirstEnergy reached a deferred prosecution agreement ([link removed]) with federal prosecutors last summer, and agreed to a statement of facts ([link removed]) in which it admitted that it paid approximately $60 million ([link removed]) to influence the actions of indicted former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder on HB 6. The company also admitted ([link removed]) it paid $4.3 million ([link removed]) to
influence former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Samuel Randazzo’s actions on HB 6 and other matters.
Randazzo, who resigned from PUCO after the FBI raided ([link removed]) his home, has not been named or charged in the investigation but is a defendant in a related civil lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
Skory has also not been named or charged in the federal investigation.
Skory’s name, however, did appear on copies of once “confidential” Cleveland Electric Illuminating (CEI) Company leases ([link removed]) with DJM Lakeside LLC that PUCOreleased ([link removed]) last year as “supporting documents” used in an HB 6-related audit of the FirstEnergy Delivery Capitalization Rider ([link removed]) .
Skory’s name appeared on a 2018 amendment ([link removed]) to CEI’s lease with DJM LLC
Skory’s name and signature also appeared on a 2015 lease agreement ([link removed])
“The audit report examined expenses identified by FirstEnergy Corp. in its Feb. 18, 2021 report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to be improperly classified, misallocated, or lacked supporting documentation,” PUCO said in a press release announcing the audit ([link removed]) , which recommended millions of dollars in related refunds to FirstEnergy’s Ohio customers.
FirstEnergy attributed the initial discovery of the improper payments to an internal investigation launched by the company ([link removed]) in response to the Householder case.
The audit report ([link removed]) examined improper payments FirstEnergy made to entities associated with Householder, Randazzo, and Cleveland-area businessman Tony George. DJM Lakeside was one of a dozen George entities that received payments flagged by the audit ([link removed]) .
The scope of the audit did not include determining why the payments were improper.
FirstEnergy controller Tracy Ashton later identified ([link removed]) Tony George as the unnamed “Individual B” described in a statement of facts the company agreed to as part of its deferred prosecution agreement.
Cleveland.com reported ([link removed]) that George acted as “intermediary between top FirstEnergy officials and now-indicted former House Speaker Larry Householder.”
Ashton identified George during a deposition in a civil lawsuit filed by FirstEnergy shareholders in response to the HB 6 scandal.
George has not been named or charged in the federal investigation and previouslytold Cleveland.com ([link removed]) that any payments his companies billed FirstEnergy for were proper.
“As I noted previously, we’re unable to share further information about this personnel matter,” Young said when asked if Skory’s departure and violation were related to George.
FirstEnergy’s statement that Skory’s exit from the company is not related to HB 6 raises new and unanswered questions about what exactly Skory did that violated company policy.
Skory’s departure occurred sometime in the past two weeks. FirstEnergy’s website still lists Skory as a member of the company’s leadership on a page ([link removed]) marked as last updated on October 20, 2022.
Skory’s career with the company began in 1977 when he joined CEI, according to a bio found online ([link removed]) .
Top image is a photo by the Energy and Policy Institute of the W.H. Sammis coal-fired power plant once owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, and now slated for closure ([link removed])
The post Vice President John Skory exits FirstEnergy after ‘violation’ ([link removed]) appeared first on Energy and Policy Institute ([link removed]) .
Read in browser » ([link removed])
[link removed] [link removed]
** Recent Articles:
------------------------------------------------------------
** Gas industry group is behind ‘Affordable Energy Fund’ PAC election mailers and digital ads targeting Ohio ([link removed])
** Latest campaign reports show Arizona utilities funding GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake ([link removed])
** Documents show TC Energy’s contractors did not report conflicts of interest to FERC ([link removed])
** Amid controversies, DTE Energy continues to spend big in Michigan and nearly every lawmaker accepts ([link removed])
** Carbon Capture Coalition lobbied to weaken guardrails for expanded carbon capture subsidy ([link removed]
============================================================
** Facebook ([link removed])
** Twitter ([link removed])
** Website ([link removed])
Copyright © 2022 Energy and Policy Institute, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website via our Contact Us page.
Our mailing address is:
Energy and Policy Institute
P.O. Box 170399
San Francisco, CA 94117
USA
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can ** update your preferences ([link removed])
or ** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
.
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]
