Cleveland.com | Jeremy Pelzer
Attorney General Dave Yost has filed another lawsuit seeking to block payment of a scandal-ridden $1 billion-plus ratepayer bailout to the owner of two northern Ohio nuclear plants.
The lawsuit asks a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge to issue an injunction to stop both the collection and payment of the bailout money to the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, owned by Energy Harbor (a former FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary).
The bailout payments, which are scheduled to start in January, is funded by new monthly surcharges ranging from 85 cents for residential customers to as much as $2,400 for large industrial plants.
The lawsuit notes that Ohio law doesn’t allow refunds for utility fees – even illegal ones – unless a refund mechanism is set up as part of the fee. HB6 doesn’t include any refund provision except for any “excess funds left over once the bailout ends in 2027.
“The people of Ohio are about to be shaken down for money they should not pay and will never be able to get back,” Yost’s lawsuit states, adding later: “Injunctive relief is necessary to stop at least the distribution, and ideally the collection, of the corruptly enacted rate tariff.”