Ohio Utility Pays $230 Million as Penalty for Massive Bribery Scandal Involvement

For its part in a really bizarre corruption case, FirstEnergy, a large Ohio-based utility corporation, has agreed to pay a $230 million fine.

Acting US Attorney Vipal Patel said on Thursday that the amount is the "largest criminal penalty ever collected, as far as anyone can remember, in the history of this office."

The Treasury will receive half of FirstEnergy's penalty, while the remaining $115 million will be used to finance a statewide program to help Ohio citizens pay their power bills.

The state, on the other hand, isn't done with its horribly flawed climate policy. DeWine signed a bill permitting local governments to approve resolutions prohibiting big wind and solar initiatives or blocking renewable projects in specific areas of their counties on Thursday, the same day that FirstEnergy admitted its participation in the scandal.

Ohio also approved legislation preventing towns from blocking consumers from utilizing natural gas earlier this month, following in the footsteps of more than 15 other states that have done so. According to emails obtained via public documents requests by the Energy and Policy Institute, these pieces of legislation were crafted by the utility trade group Energy Solutions Center.

But, of course, the legislators who proposed and supported them haven't been too forthright about it. Unlike the massive FirstEnergy scam, which may all be legal, that doesn't make it any less murky or hazardous.

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