VOX: "This Ohio utility has an innovative plan to save coal power: force customers to buy it"

A FirstEnergy ratepayer (Shutterstock). In fact, AARP has spoken out forcefully against the FirstEnergy bailout, as at PUCO public comment hearings in Akron, OH -- FirstEnergy's hometown -- in Jan. 2015.Should we laugh or cry? David Roberts has written an appropriately sarcastic, comprehensive review of FirstEnergy's attempt to gouge Ohio ratepayers to the tune of $3 billion over the next 15 years, to prop up its uncompetitive Davis-Besse atom-splitter on the Lake Erie shore, and its climate-fouling Sammis coal burner on the banks of the Ohio River.

Never mind that a decade ago, FirstEnergy lobbyists led the charge for "deregulation." Now, they're leading the charge for killing the competition (efficiency and renewables), as NIRS executive director Tim Judson has put it. And they're leading the charge for this ratepayer bailout. More.