Eye on Ohio (https://eyeonohio.com/)
Texts about the $456 million charge may further undermine public confidence in the PUCO. This article is provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism in partnership with the nonprofit Energy News Network. Please join the free mailing lists for Eye on Ohio or the Energy News Network, as this helps provide more public service reporting. Newly disclosed texts from a former head of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio suggest he knew a grid modernization charge that cost ratepayers nearly half a billion dollars was “likely to be found illegal and could not be refunded.”
Former PUCO Chair Asim Haque and former FirstEnergy Vice President Michael Dowling exchanged text messages on the same day the Supreme Court of Ohio held the charge unlawful. Challengers in the case had argued that the commission’s order imposing the charge basically had no strings attached to make FirstEnergy take any specific actions to modernize the grid. At the same time, the court ruled against refunding the charge. By that time in 2019, Ohio ratepayers had spent roughly $456 million. “And knowing that it would likely be found illegal and could not be refunded, I knew you would hold onto the funds,” Haque wrote.
The text suggests the ruling wasn’t a surprise to him and that the failure to provide for any refund in the 2016 order was deliberate. The court ruling and text message exchange were in June 2019, more than two months after Haque’s resignation. Haque is now a vice president at grid operator PJM. In an email response to Eye on Ohio and the Energy News Network, Haque maintains the exchange was a joke.
The couple who put their blood, sweat, and tears into building a home to care for their elderly parents and others. The millionaires next door who made it clear they were not welcome. And the dream that mysteriously went up in smoke. This article provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism.
Exploring what can be done to help cities’ poorest residents who struggle with water debt
This is part two of a three-part series looking at the state of water affordability in Cleveland, Philadelphia and beyond, authored by the Northeast Ohio Solutions Journalism Collaborative in partnership with Resolve Philly in Philadelphia. You can find Part 1 here. Robert Ballenger’s office in Center City Philadelphia is filled to the brim with stacks of paperwork. It’s just one small sign of the complexity of the assistance programs his low-income clients need.
If Kevina Chapolini-Renwrick couldn’t pay the $15,000 water bill, she’d lose her home. The South Philadelphia resident began to panic when she saw the city had tacked a notice on her door threatening her with legal action, back in the summer of 2021. Her husband had inherited the property from his parents in 2007, and with it, their unpaid water bill debt. Tears traced the retired social worker’s cheeks as she recalled the memories tied to the simple rowhouse with beige siding, snugly tucked between its neighbors on a peaceful side street in the Newbold neighborhood.
Al Jenkins outside of his Cleveland home. This project was funded by a grant from the Pulitzer Center and provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism.