In The News 7 January 2026

PUCO OKs settlement increasing restitution to customers in FirstEnergy/House Bill 6 investigations

COLUMBUS – Today the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) approved an unopposed settlement agreement to increase the restitution FirstEnergy’s Ohio utilities will provide customers as a result of the PUCO’s Nov. 19, 2025 orders in its FirstEnergy/House Bill 6 investigations.

The settlement approved by the Commission builds upon its landmark Nov. 19, 2025, orders finding the companies in violation of Ohio law, PUCO regulations and PUCO orders, by increasing the amount of monetary restitution to customers instead of assessing civil forfeitures.

The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Ohio Edison Company, and The Toledo Edison Company will provide $249 million in restitution to customers over three billing periods and provide an additional $20 million to fund low-income programs. The companies will also refund $6.6 million (plus an approximate $6.2 million in interest) for improper charges and provide $5 million in restitution to the Retail Energy Supply Association for violations of corporate separation regulations.

The settling parties agree to withdraw all pending rehearing requests and conclude the PUCO’s investigations.

The House Bill 6 scandal led to the 2020 arrest of former Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder as well as Mathew Borges, the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party.
 
According to the 80-page criminal complaint unsealed in 2020, from March 2017 to March 2020, the enterprise received millions of dollars in exchange for Householder’s and the enterprise’s help in passing House Bill 6, a billion-dollar bailout that saved two failing Ohio nuclear power plants from closing.

“This order brings finality to these four cases and most importantly returns these dollars to the FirstEnergy customers,” stated PUCO Chair Jenifer French.

Additional background information about the PUCO investigations, audits and timelines can be found at PUCO.ohio.gov/hb6.

A copy of today’s opinion and order is available on the PUCO website at PUCO.ohio.gov by clicking on the link to “Docketing Information System” and searching for cases 17-974-EL-UNC, 17-2474-EL-RDR, 20-1502-EL-UNC and 20-1629-EL-RDR.

* * *

••• Publisher's note: A free press is critical to having well-informed voters and citizens. While some news organizations opt for paid websites or costly paywalls, The Highland County Press has maintained a free newspaper and website for the last 27 years for our community. If you would like to contribute to this service – and want it to continue – it would be greatly appreciated. Donations may be made to: The Highland County Press, P.O. Box 849, Hillsboro, Ohio 45133. Please include https://eaccess.hccpc.org/eservices/accessibility.page"for website" on the memo line.
 

Add new comment

This is not for publication.
This is not for publication.
About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
Article comments are not posted immediately to the Web site. Each submission must be approved by the Web site editor, who may edit content for appropriateness. There may be a delay of 24-48 hours for any submission while the web site editor reviews and approves it. Note: All information on this form is required. Your telephone number and email address is for our use only, and will not be attached to your comment.
CAPTCHA This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
House
Bill
6