After Nearly 15 Years Of PR & Bullshit, Corrupt First Energy Still Shows Same "Brazen Arrogance"
The $61 million alleged bribery scheme wrapped around FirstEnergy Corp. has opened old wounds for the Ohio utility giant, and convinced FirstEnergy’s harshest critics that the corporation never learned its lesson from the company’s last colossal public relations failure. FirstEnergy Corp. was fined a record $28 million more than 14 years ago to avoid being criminally prosecuted for lying to the government about the dangerous condition of the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant’s original reactor head. The government at the time said it was lowering the boom on FirstEnergy because it had shown “brazen arrogance” and had “breached the public trust.”
Evidence showed that loose acid FirstEnergy knew about for at least six years had melted away much of the reactor’s protective cap, so much so that it was two-tenths of an inch away from bursting. That could have caused a crisis at Ohio’s Davis-Besse akin to Pennsylvania’s high-profile Three Mile Island Unit 2 accident in March, 1979, the worst nuclear accident on U.S. soil.
That was then and this is now: The same corporation, which owns Penn Power and West Penn Power, is now believed to be the one federal prosecutors refer to merely as “Company A” in an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint. “The consistency of brazen arrogance continues,” said Dick Munson, Chicago-based Midwest Clean Energy director for the national Environmental Defense Fund. An affidavit filed in federal court outlines what authorities contend was a $61 million bribery scandal that was masterminded by Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others. Experts believe if Company A doesn’t refer directly to FirstEnergy, then it refers to a subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions or FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. Both oversaw the Davis-Besse plant east of Toledo and the Perry plant east of Cleveland from November 2016 until FES and FENOC filed for bankruptcy in March, 2018. The plants are now owned by an FES offshoot, Energy Harbor.
Prosecutors claim Company A funneled money through nonprofit entities to help with the election of lawmakers loyal to Mr. Householder. Those lawmakers were then expected to pass the $1 billion nuclear-plant bailout and quash a citizens’ group’s attempt to repeal the bailout through a voter referendum. Over the past 14 years, FirstEnergy has engaged in a massive public relations campaign, stating at innumerable public hearings it is not the same corporation it was when the Davis-Besse reactor scandal — and evidence of an attempted coverup — rocked the nuclear industry in 2002. In addition to the $28 million criminal fine, FirstEnergy paid a $5.45 million civil penalty imposed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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https://www.post-gazette.com/business/powersource/2020/08/02/Current-61M-bribery-allegation-opens-old-wounds-for-FirstEnergy/stories/202008020130
