Credit Ohio Public Radio
Environmental advocacy groups have asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to expand their investigation of a bribery scandal to include an examination of the panel s former chair.
The Environmental Law & Policy Center and Ohio Environmental Council submitted a filing asking to investigate whether Akron-based FirstEnergy tried to influence former chair Sam Randazzo. He resigned soon after the FBI searched his German Village townhome and FirstEnergy said former top executives paid a utility regulator matching his description 4 million dollars to end a consulting contract.
Meanwhile, there are calls for people serving on the commission to be elected by voters instead of being appointed by the governor. Ohio Public Radio s Karen Kasler reports.
A 2016 meeting of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio
Credit Ohio Public Radio Environmental advocacy groups have asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to expand their investigation of a bribery scandal to include an examination of the panel s former chair.
The Environmental Law & Policy Center and Ohio Environmental Council submitted a filing asking to investigate whether Akron-based FirstEnergy tried to influence former chair Sam Randazzo. He resigned soon after the FBI searched his German Village townhome and FirstEnergy said former top executives paid a utility regulator matching his description 4 million dollars to end a consulting contract. class= wysiwyg-break drupal-content src= /sites/all/modules/contrib/wysiwyg/plugins/break/images/spacer.gif title= >Meanwhile, there are calls for people serving on the commission to be elected by voters instead of being appointed by the governor. Ohio Public Radio s Karen Kasler reports.
Randazzo became chairman of the utilities commission and the Ohio Power Siting Board, which regulates energy projects, in April 2019.
FirstEnergy is the subject of multiple investigations after federal authorities alleged last July that the company funded a $60 million bribery scheme to get the legislation, known as HB6, approved and to prevent a referendum issue on the bailout from reaching the Ohio ballot.
The former Ohio House speaker and four others were subsequently indicted on a federal racketeering conspiracy charge.
Wednesday’s filing noted the firing of FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and other top company executives last fall and other events that “further support” the utilities commission’s “duty to provide a robust investigation into the First Energy Utilities’ involvement in the passage of HB6.”
MPSC
MPSC releases guidance on implementation of PURPA after Federal Energy Regulatory Commission s Order 872
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 21, 2021
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The Michigan Public Service Commission today provided guidance on how it plans to adjust its implementation of the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) in the wake of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s issuance of Order 872 in 2020 (Case No. U-20905).
The Commission in October requested comments from interested parties on how Order 872 impacts the MPSC’s implementation of PURPA, a federal law created amid the 1970s national energy crisis to encourage competition, conservation, reliability and efficiency in generating and delivering electricity. PURPA, which is largely carried out by states, encourages the integration of electricity generation from smaller renewable energy and cogeneration qualifying facilities, or QFs, to achieve diversity, reliabili