Unplug FirstEnergy Corporation:
Dissolve the Company / Revoke its Corporate Charter
After the largest bribery scandal in Ohio’s history, are we at last ready as self-governing people to appropriately act on behalf of consumers, the environment, and democracy?
It’s time to hold FirstEnergy Corporation accountable in proportion to the scale of its historic admitted crime of a $61 million payment in 2021 to a nonprofit secretly operated by former GOP Speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder (now in prison) and another $4.3 million payment to the state’s top utility regulator, Sam Randazzo, who was recently indicted and is now deceased. The bribes were intended to pass House Bill 6 (HB6), a $1.3 billion bailout of two FirstEnergy antiquated, failing nuclear power plants, which would have cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
HB6 included siphoning tens of millions of dollars more from ratepayers to subsidize two uncompetitive coal plants owned by other utility corporations (one in Indiana) and the ending of legislation to help customers to use less energy – a combined economic, environmental and democratic disaster.
The only appropriate response is to dissolve the company / revoke the corporate charter of FirstEnergy, putting it out of business.
Corporations are legal creations of the state, which grants them charters to operate. Many individuals must obtain a license to conduct their profession in Ohio, which can be revoked under certain circumstances, as a means to protect the public. The same goes for corporations. There are many examples of corporate charter revocation in Ohio history.
If the magnitude of the illegal bribery scheme of FirstEnergy doesn’t qualify for its charter to be revoked, then nothing will.
Ohio Attorney General David Yost has filed a civil suit against FirstEnergy Corporation, calling for it to be dissolved or reorganized pursuant to the Ohio Revised Code 2923.34(B)(3). The lawsuit is separate from those filed by Yost against individual company employees who have also been charged. It’s not enough for FirstEnergy executives and those receiving bribes to be held accountable and be prosecuted. The company as a separate entity needs to be held fundamentally accountable.
Dissolving/Revoking FirstEnergy’s corporate charter is less about punishing the company and more about protecting the public, the environment and democracy.
Join us on Wednesday, May 29 at 11:30 am at the Governor Thomas Worthington Room, ground floor, at the Statehouse, corner of Broad and High streets, in Columbus (garage parking) – the 3rd anniversary of the Ohio House of Representatives’ passage of HB6 – to call on Attorney General David Yost to put FirstEnergy out of business, not simply call for its reorganization.
Unplug FirstEnergy. Assert People Power over Corporate Power.
FirstEnergy Accountability Coalition, ohio@movetoamend.org