An auditor that could have inside knowledge about House Bill 6 allegations surrounding FirstEnergy Corp. won’t be required by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to give a deposition about what the auditor may know.
The PUCO board ruled this week it will not allow Ohio’s largest state-funded consumer advocacy group, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, to issue Oxford Advisors a subpoena to provide such information under oath.
An administrative law judge, Attorney Examiner Gregory A. Price, said in a 17-page order on Feb. 18 that he wants the PUCO staff to produce an Oxford Advisors witness to talk about the case “in the interest of transparency.” The OCC, in an appeal, though, said it believes the judge erred by not requiring a deposition.
The PUCO board said that’s not the case. It said the OCC failed to prove why a deposition needs to be taken and upheld an earlier ruling which said it doesn’t.
“The Commission notes that, in its interlocutory appeal, OCC alleges a number of errors by the attorney examiner. Upon review, we find that none of these alleged errors have merit,” the PUCO board stated. “Given that the Feb. 18, 2022 Entry extended the comment period in this proceeding and allowed that reasonable requests for further extensions would only be entertained if a party were to produce meaningful, quantified assessments on the progress of reviewing discovery, we suggest parties maintain their focus on reviewing the approximately 230,000 pages of documents provided by the Companies and FirstEnergy Corp. through discovery, rather than attack the Commission’s longstanding discovery practices.”
Oxford Advisors was the original firm hired to audit FirstEnergy’s use of $457.7 million of money collected from ratepayers for regional grid improvements. Questions have arisen over whether a portion of that money could have been used to help secure votes needed for the taxpayer bailouts of the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, as well as coal-fired power plants.
The House Bill 6 scandal, according to federal prosecutors, centers around a $61 million bribery scheme allegedly masterminded by former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others to woo support for the $1 billion bailout package the Ohio General Assembly passed in the summer of 2019.
Oxford never completed its audit and has not spoken about the controversy. But while a 137-page audit released by its successor, Daymark Energy Advisors, said it could find “no documented evidence” that any of the money was used illegally, Daymark also said it can’t rule that out because of sloppy record-keeping.
J.P. Blackwood, Consumers’ Counsel spokesman, said that office is disappointed by the PUCO board’s decision.
“We continue to consider legal options for finding truth and justice for consumers and accountability for FirstEnergy in its House Bill 6 scandals,” Mr. Blackwood said.
The PUCO board said it believes the OCC’s claim about the existence of a controversial text message from a former FirstEnergy executive is based on speculation. The OCC claims former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones ordered via text that the final version of the original auditing firm’s report be burned once it was completed.
The Plain Dealer reported in January that forensic experts are trying to recover texts that have been deleted from his phone.
Known as Distribution Modernization Riders, or DMRs, the fees for grid improvements were collected from ratepayers from Jan. 1, 2017 through July 2, 2019. Ohio is part of a 13-state, regional electric grid operated by PJM Interconnection.
FirstEnergy has denied any wrongdoing and has said it does not agree with Daymark’s conclusions.
First Published March 10, 2022, 11:12 p.m.
