Who Benefits from Re-Regulation
What is Re-Regulation?
“A Bailout by Any Other Name: FirstEnergy Still Trying to Stick It to Ohio Customers”
Re-regulation is a proposal by Ohio’s power utilities (AEP, FirstEnergy, and DP&L) to take Ohio’s current open marketplace for electric production back to a regulated market. Re-regulation will create a monopoly, eliminate consumer choice, and burden all Ohio electricity customers with a $100 billion electric utility subsidy or bailout. Read more here
Members of the statehouse will be deliberating “re-regulation” this year in Columbus. Not a single Ohio resident or business will benefit from this proposed plan to take away consumer choice via new re-regulation laws. Read more here
| Who Benefits From Re-Regulations: 4 Key Benefactors | |
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| 1) Ohio Utility Executives. | In short, “re-reg” is a $100 Billion bailout for AEP/FirstEnergy/DP&L. Senior management of these companies continues to enjoy multi-millions in annual compensation yet still want Ohio electricity consumers to help fund their compensation. As you can clearly see, AEP’s executive compensation is up over 200%, since 2011 and has swelled to over $24.1 million/year in 2015, for just 5 employees! More information on executive compensation can be found here.
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| 2) Wall Street | For example, FirstEnergy’s stock price has fallen from $50/share in 2011 to $32/share. Their shareholders, bond holders, and note holders will directly benefit from an Ohio bailout via re-regulation. Re-regulation may help Wall Street, but it will not help Ohio’s Main Street.
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| 3) Lobbyists & Consultants | Ohio utilities spend millions in political donations and lobbying efforts. In this case, these funds have one purpose: create access to elected officials to promote utility causes, such as “re-regulation” for the sole benefit of parties noted in the first two sections above. According to OpenSecrets.org, FirstEnergy and AEP have doubled down on their political spending. For more information and to access the chart below click here.
As a recent article from Third Rail Politics rightly stated “..their (P.U. Committees) chairmen are often showered with campaign contributions from the industries they regulate.” Click here to read more. |
| 4) Elected Officials Who Support Re-Regulation | Elected officials are in office to serve the needs and interest of their constituents. Recent polls show that the electorate favors “customer choice by a 7:1 margin”. A recent study by the Ohio State University and Cleveland State explains why “customer choice” is so important. Customer choice saves Ohioans $3 billion/year. Click here to learn more.
These circumstances raise an important ethics/moral question for Ohio’s elected officials,
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