2023

2022 

2021

American Electric Power Co. workers secure coal barges before making their way down the Ohio River. Photo by Ty Wright of Bloomberg via Getty Images.

  • July 2021: FirstEnergy reaches a deferred prosecution agreement and is fined $230 million. FirstEnergy admitted to conspiring “with public officials and other individuals and entities to pay millions of dollars to public officials in exchange for specific official action for FirstEnergy Corp.’s benefit.” 

2020

  • January 2020: Jeff Longstreth, Larry Householder’s chief political aide and strategist, received $1M from Generation Now.
  • February 2020: FirstEnergy Solutions announced it successfully restructured under Chapter 11 bankruptcy and that it is changing its name to Energy Harbor.
  • July 21, 2020: Former Speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder and his allies — Neil Clark, Matt Borges, Jeff Longstreth, and Juan Cespedes — are arrested. All of them, as well as Generation Now 501(c)(4) were charged with public corruption and racketeering. Not only was FirstEnergy not charged at this time, but it also simply appears as “Company A” in the complaint. The complaint lays out how dark money groups were used to benefit Householder politically and to garner a bailout. 

2019

  • January 2019: FirstEnergy gives $4.3 M to Sustainability Funding Alliance, a shadowy for-profit corporation run by Sam Randazzo, who was later appointed the Chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). 

Image 5.5 Updated IEEFA Diagram

  • April 2019: House Bill 6 was introduced to bail out two nuclear plants, paid for by utility ratepayers. That month, Sam Randazzo was also confirmed by the Ohio Senate as chair of the PUCO. 
  • May-July 2019: Ads from Generation Now—funded by FirstEnergy promoting House Bill 6 — appear on the television, social media, and in Ohioans’ mailboxes
  • May 2019: Ohio Senate passes House Bill 6 (19-12).
  • July 2019: Ohio House passes House Bill 6 (53-43).
  • July 2019: Public records from the Ohio Consumer Counsel revealed a text from the former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones to the former Chair of the Public Utilities Commission Sam Randazzo. Mt. Rushmore has photoshopped faces of then-FirstEnergy lobbyist Ty Pine, former FirstEnergy VP Mike Dowling, Sam Randazzo, and Matt Evans, president of Boich Companies, “Company C” in the Householder corruption complaint. Gov. DeWine appointed Evans to serve as a trustee of Ohio University.

    Image of the text sent by ex-FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones to ex-PUCO Chairman Sam Randazzo after passage of HB6 on July 23, 2019.

Image of xenophobic mailer paid for by Ohioans for Energy Security

2018

Image of the FirstEnergy Corp. Perry Nuclear Generating Station in Perry, Ohio. Photo by David Maxwell of Bloomberg via Getty Images.