In Ohio, officials began investigating FirstEnergy and AEP after lawmakers passed House Bill 6 in 2019. That bill
gutted the state’s energy efficiency standards, bailed out FirstEnergy’s struggling nuclear plants with
$1.2 billion in public funds, and propped up AEP’s coal plants with a
$243 million subsidy.
FBI agents eventually discovered that FirstEnergy had secretly donated more than $60 million to groups controlled by Householder, then Ohio’s House speaker, in exchange for passing the bill. The company pleaded guilty in 2021 and has been cooperating with investigators.