俄亥俄能源提供商FirstEnergy Corp.已同意因其在2019年为自己的核和燃煤电厂的11亿美元纾困方面的赔偿中的作用而支付2.3亿美元的罚款。

联邦律师提交起诉协议with FirstEnergy in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati July 22. The company was charged with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud in the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history. Under the deferred prosecution agreement, FirstEnergy will in addition to its fine develop a stronger compliance and ethics program, remain in compliance for three years and cooperate with the government in its investigation of the men involved.

欺诈指控将被驳回，等待第一笔协议条款的合作。在那些被指控的人中，只有前俄亥俄州众议院议长拉里·霍纳（R）和前俄亥俄州共和党主席马特·博尔奇斯（Matt Borges）正在与贿赂和阴谋指控作斗争。参与其中的其他人同意与政府合作。

According to court documents, a 501c4 organization called Generation Now was created by Householder, Borges and three other state officials, former officials and lobbyists. Generation Now was funded entirely by $61 million in donations from FirstEnergy and its subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions, which in 2016 owned the two nuclear plants in danger of closing.

The donations benefited Householder and other state politicians who backed House Bill 6 in 2019, which became law and provided FirstEnergy a $1-billion bailout of the two aging nuclear plants on Lake Erie. The two plants, which still operate, are now owned by Energy Harbor, which was created when FirstEnergy Solutions emerged from bankruptcy and was spun off into a new company.

HB6还救助了两家据说当时会关闭的第一层燃煤电厂。

根据针对FirstEnergy的刑事诉讼，这一生成从2016年底到2019年的定期付款最高25万美元。现在，这些付款是为了换取从经营当地的众议院竞选活动的一切，这些竞选活动导致家庭在2019年赢得了演讲，再到对他的农场进行维修。俄亥俄州南部地区代理律师Vipal J. Patel在7月22日的新闻发布会上说，该公用事业公司必须改变履行协议条款的业务方式。

帕特尔说：“他们有一项公司合规协议，这似乎不起作用。”“有些事情不起作用。”

Patel said the deal was the largest penalty in the history of the state of Ohio and said he did not want to get into the legality or illegality of 501c4s, defined by the Internal Revenue Service as social welfare organizations that can make political donations, but did say at a news conference July 22, "It’s no different than if you had written Partners for Progress (the 501c4 FirstEnergy made the donations to Generation Now through) on a brown paper bag and stuffed a bunch of cash in it and slid it across the table. That’s largely analogous to what happened."

FirstEnergy的前首席执行官查克·琼斯（Chuck Jones）于2020年10月因丑闻的影响而被解雇。发言人艾伦·里普（Allan Ripp）代表琼斯（Jones）发表的声明说：“琼斯先生没有向任何公职官员付款或授权向任何公职官员付款以换取任何正式行为。无论是否同意，第一修正案和第一修正案和竞选财务法允许使用501C4实体进行适当的政治活动；允许个人和公司以合法的方式支持政治候选人；并允许个人和公司代表立法和政府政策游说。”

但是，绿色能源和消费者的拥护者说，对FirstEnergy的2.3亿美元罚款不够僵硬，并且不会撤消该公司游说对该州能源电网造成的损害。

"It's a drop in the bucket," said Tom Bullock, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Ohio. "FirstEnergy admitted to taking part in a bribery scheme that cost taxpayers $1 billion. We absolutely need consumers to be made whole. We also need to address weatherization and how Ohio's entire clean energy system was dismantled by House Bill 6. This is still costing the taxpayers."

Jeff Deyette, director of state policy and analysis in the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, went even further in condemning the penalty as too lenient and said that it sets a bad precedent.

"What FirstEnergy got here was essentially a slap on the wrist. A $230-million investment essentially for a $1 billion bailout," he said. "More needs to be done to send a signal to utilities that this is not the way that utility policy, public policy should be made in this country moving forward,"

尽管HB6的一部分已被废除，但在能源港的管理下，两家核电厂和燃煤电厂仍在运营，Bullock说，损失了对清洁能源解决方案的投资，例如由风和太阳能造成的救助。煤炭和核电站已将这些技术在俄亥俄州的发展落后于其他州。

Deyette说，关于公用事业如何参与州政治的治理需要改变。

他说：“ [FirstEnergy]有点列出了剧本，在这里如何以持续的法律方式使用黑钱。”“这就是需要改变的原因，这是一个治理问题，我们需要改变书籍上的法律。”

该故事于8月5日更新了有关科学家联盟的评论。