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 Environmentalists say Maumee Bay, near Toledo, would have been a better target for FirstEnergy conservation work. (Photo by rayb777 via Creative Commons) OREGON — “A Clean Water Act settlement related to that and two other small oil spills at FirstEnergy plants means that the company will pay a $125,000 fine and donate 200 acres of wetlands along Lake Erie in northeast Ohio to a land conservancy.
The land targeted is about 60 miles from two of the plants that had the oil spills, in Cleveland and Lorain. And it’s more than 150 miles from Bayshore.
Maumee Bay and western Lake Erie are considered among the Great Lakes’ most troubled spots, plagued by nutrient pollution, toxic algae blooms, low oxygen levels, invasive species and other issues. Since the waters are very shallow, they are also critically impacted by effects of climate change including warming, evaporation and pollution from runoff during heavy rains.
Local advocates hoped the EPA’s settlement with FirstEnergy could play a small part in addressing some of these problems and helping to make up for Bayshore’s share of the impacts. They are disappointed and frustrated that the settlement is instead benefiting a distant and ecologically separate part of the lake.”
— Kari Lydersen, Midwest Energy News
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COLUMBUS — “American Municipal Power and FirstEnergy are scrapping plans to build jointly a gas-fired power plant in northeastern Ohio because of increased financing costs.
The project in Eastlake, announced in November, was going to generate power during periods of peak demand, meaning it would operate only on the hottest days of the year.
…The financing issues arise from the sequester, a series of federal budget cuts that took effect in March. Among the cuts was the amount of the subsidy for Build America Bonds and other bonds that cities can use to help finance power-plant construction.”
— Dan Gearino, Columbus Dispatch
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 —Environmentalists say Maumee Bay, near Toledo, would have been a better target for FirstEnergy conservation work. CHICAGO, IL — “When power plant operators commit pollution violations, they are often required by the Environmental Protection Agency to do mitigation work on environmentally sensitive lands.
Critics, however, say vague rules often let the violators choose projects based on convenience, rather than impact.
In 2007, oil leaked from a storage tank at FirstEnergy’s Bayshore power plant on the shore of Maumee Bay, on the western edge of Lake Erie near Toledo. The company said about five gallons of oil made it into Lake Erie.
A Clean Water Act settlement related to that and two other small oil spills at FirstEnergy plants means that the company will pay a $125,000 fine and donate 200 acres of wetlands along Lake Erie in northeast Ohio to a land conservancy.
The land targeted is about 60 miles from two of the plants that had the oil spills, in Cleveland and Lorain. And it’s more than 150 miles from Bayshore.”
— Kari Lydersen, Midwest Energy News
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 Getting into the Perry nuclear power plant is supposed to be more difficult than breaking out of a prison. NORTH PERRY — “A respected nuclear watchdog group on Thursday said operators at the Perry nuclear power plant discovered a vulnerability in the plant’s security last year that could have put the public in danger.
The weakness apparently had to do with underground piping or trenching through which intruders might be able to get inside the plant, the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a report issued Thursday. The group did not identify the location of the pipes or tunnels at Perry.
The revelation of the potential security weakness that could have allowed outsiders into secure areas of the Perry plant — possibly through underground pipes — is one of 14 ‘near misses’ nationwide included in a report on nuclear safety issued annually by the group.”
— John Funk, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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 Yard signs like this one can be seen along Pyramus and Johnsonville roads, in Chester, where residents are concerned about the environmental effects of coal ash being disposed of at the nearby Little Blue Run impoundment. PITTSBURGH, PA — “FirstEnergy Corp. will put more than 3 million tons of coal ash and smokestack scrubber waste a year into barges and ship it 96 miles up the Ohio and Monongahela rivers to a new disposal site when it is forced to close its massive Little Blue Run coal ash impoundment on the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border at the end of 2016.
The electric utility company, based in Akron, Ohio, announced earlier this week it will ship “coal combustion by-products” produced by the Bruce Mansfield power plant in Shippingport, Beaver County, to an existing unlined ash disposal site in LaBelle, Fayette County, owned by Matt Canestrale Contracting Inc.
…’We are encouraged that FirstEnergy has decided to close Little Blue and abandon plans for expansion,’ said Roni Kampmeyer, a spokeswoman for the Little Blue Regional Action Group, which opposed the expansion plans. ‘But we don’t want FirstEnergy to just push the problem onto somebody else.’”
— Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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 FirstEnergy Corp. Anthony Alexander believes state energy efficiency mandates are too costly for customers and have interfered with normal market development. CLEVELAND — “Ohio’s energy efficiency standards will remain intact — for now.
FirstEnergy Corp. has abandoned its behind-the-scene lobbying campaign to persuade lawmakers to gut a four-year-old law requiring utilities to help customers use less electricity by switching to energy efficient equipment and lighting.
At least a dozen energy efficiency advocates, environmentalists and other groups have been waging a public battle to stop FirstEnergy’s bid to change the law.”
— John Funk, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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AKRON — “What troubles Advanced Energy Economy Ohio and, earlier, the Ohio Manufacturers Association, is the timing of the FirstEnergy effort. They see the requirements largely working, producing savings and sparking innovation. They ask: Why rush to shift direction so substantially — without the benefit of legislative hearings or a full airing of concerns and virtues of the policy?
The manufacturers association looked at the call for altering the efficiency requirements and concluded advocates ‘will need to bring much more data and analysis to the table to demonstrate why’ the change should be made. It stressed that ‘a compelling body of evidence exists to support a continued statewide commitment to achieving the energy efficiency targets.’
What should not be compromised is a long-term and vigorous commitment by the state to energy efficiency. It is cost-effective. It is innovative and cleaner. It serves as a hedge against the volatility of energy prices, especially in the realm of natural gas. So, yes, continue the discussion about energy efficiency moving forward — after the lame ducks have limped away.”
— editorial, Akron Beacon Journal
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COLUMBUS — “A battle is emerging over state energy conservation standards that have saved Ohioans $1 billion on their electric bills since 2008.
Ohio’s Energy Efficiency Resource Standard requires that Ohio investor-owned utilities cut a cumulative 22 percent of electric consumption through energy efficiency efforts by 2025. The standards were signed into law in 2008 by then Gov. Ted Strickland.
A legislative change proposed by FirstEnergy Corp. would freeze the efficiency levels at what has been achieved through 2012. The proposal has ignited opposition from energy efficiency businesses, a state environmental group and the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association.
FirstEnergy spokesman Doug Colafella said the proposal has no sponsor yet and that the utility is only in discussions with legislators and consumer groups. No other state utilities have been mentioned as sponsoring potential changes to the law.”
— Steve Bennish, Dayton Daily News
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 Ohio Statehouse COLUMBUS — “The state’s electric utilities are planning a sneak attack on Ohio’s energy efficiency mandates, say advocates who fought to have the rules put into Ohio law four years ago.
In a Monday news conference in Columbus, Steve Caminati of the Advanced Energy Economy Ohio said the utilities have been shopping proposed amendments to lawmakers in an effort to get the regulations changed in the lame duck session of the General Assembly.
Caminati said FirstEnergy is ‘leading this initiative.’
FirstEnergy Corp. spokesman Todd Schneider said it is hardly a secret that the Akron-based company wants the law changed. However, he said that no lawmaker has been willing to sponsor the company’s amendment.”
— John Funk, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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— Dan Gearino, Columbus Dispatch
CLEVELAND — “Tony Alexander, CEO of FirstEnergy Corp., says his company had no choice under state law but to buy high-priced renewable energy credits and pass the costs on to customers.
But two independent audits highlighted by Plain Dealer reporter John Funk raise serious doubts about that, and have led the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to call for hearings on the matter beginning in November.
A financial audit by Goldenberg Schneider LPA of Cincinnati points out that no Ohio utility charged customers more than FirstEnergy’s companies — the Illuminating Co., Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison — to pay for renewable energy credits. Those credits are among the requirements of a 2008 law that says Ohio utilities must provide a certain percentage of power from renewable energy or pay for renewable energy credits. They are fined if they don’t comply.”
— editorial, Cleveland Plain Dealer
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 a FirstEnergy substation COLUMBUS — “The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and its allies think consumers should not have to pay for what they consider FirstEnergy Corp.’s bungling of renewable-energy requirements.
The OCC and a small army of consumer, environmental and utility competitors are challenging the state’s approval of FirstEnergy’s latest rate plan, partly because the two-year extension of the existing plan makes consumers pay for the company’s decision to buy credits for renewable energy rather than pay fines.
Ohio law requires utilities to generate a percentage of power through renewable energy or buy credits from people and organizations that do.
The cost of renewable-energy credits can be passed on to consumers, but fines cannot. Rather than pay fines, FirstEnergy bought credits at prices higher than anywhere in the country, before or since, an independent audit found.”
John Funk, Plain Dealer
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 FirstEnergy Corp. plans to operate its coal-fired W.H. Sammis power plant only when needed. The huge power plant on the Ohio River generates nearly as much electricity as two large nuclear power plants. AKRON — “In about a month FirstEnergy Corp. will idle one of its largest coal-burning power plants.
The W.H. Sammis power plant only will run when needed, beginning about Sept. 16, said Todd Schneider, company spokesman.
There will be no layoffs, he said, but only 100 to 130 of the plant’s 440 employees will remain at Sammis. The others will be transferred to other FirstEnergy power plants.
‘It’s because of the slow economy and the historic low market prices for electricity,’ said Schneider. Sammis will remain on a ‘dispatch-only-when-needed footing’ indefinitely at this point, he said. ‘It depends on what the market does,’ he said.”
— John Funk, The Plain Dealer
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 Little Blue Run coal ash pond stands out vividly beneath the Ohio River in this 2002 image from space. SHIPPINGPORT, PA — “Little Blue Run’s operator, FirstEnergy, an electricity company based in Akron, Ohio, agreed to develop a plan to shut down the facility in a consent decree filed July 27 in federal court. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) characterized its agreement with FirstEnergy as a proactive move, to ensure the site “will not create an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment.” But for years, neighbors have complained about the site’s impact on land, air, and water, detailing the site history and their woes, for example, at a 2010 federal hearing on whether the U.S. government should step in and regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste.
Environmentalists praised the plan to shut down the 1,700-acre (688-hectare) Little Blue Run, saying it was the first time a regulatory agency has taken such aggressive action on a coal ash pond. But the larger question of how the United States will address coal ash—at 140 million tons a year, one of the nation’s largest waste streams—is still unanswered. Nearly four years since a dam collapse in Kingston, Tennessee, spilled 1.1 billion gallons (4 billion liters) of coal ash sludge into the Emory and Clinch rivers and the surrounding environment, regulations are stalled at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”
— Rachel Cernansky, National Geographic News
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O’Neill: Justices took donations from party in case before high court
 The complaint about Justices Robert Cupp, left, and Terrence O’Donnell is linked to FirstEnergy Corp. State Supreme Court candidate William M. O’Neill. COLUMBUS – “O’Neill said that Cupp and O’Donnell heard oral arguments on Jan. 17 in a case in which an attorney for Ohio Edison participated. Ohio Edison is owned by FirstEnergy Corp., which O’Neill said was “the real party of interest in the case.”
Two weeks after the oral arguments, O’Neill said, FirstEnergy, through its political-action committee, contributed $6,300 to each of the re-election campaigns of Cupp and O’Donnell. About four weeks later, on Feb. 29, Cupp and O’Donnell joined a majority opinion favoring Ohio Edison in the case, according to O’Neill.
‘At a minimum, these two justices should have either refused to accept any contributions from a party to a matter currently on their docket or recused themselves’ from the case, O’Neill said.
He told The Dispatch last night that he has asked Coughlan’s office for a full investigation, adding, ‘I dare them to say there’s no problem with taking a $6,300 contribution two weeks after hearing the case.’”
— Joe Hallett, Columbus Dispatch
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 State Senator Mike Skindell COLUMBUS — “Piggy-backing on an ethics complaint filed against two Republican justices of the Ohio Supreme Court, Democratic candidate Mike Skindell said today that he will not accept campaign money from any party in a case before the court.
Skindell, who is running against incumbent Justice Terrence O’Donnell, issued a statement outlining his position in the wake of a complaint filed Monday against O’Donnell and Justice Robert Cupp by retired Judge William M. O’Neill, who is running against Cupp in the Nov. 6 election.
…Skindell continued: ‘Sadly, Ohio voters hear that Justices O’Donnell and Cupp each took $6,300 from First Energy within two weeks of hearing a case involving a powerful utility, and their faith in the Supreme Court is further eroded. Was this really that hard of a call? Recuse yourself or refuse the money — case closed.’”
— Joe Hallett, Columbus Dispatch
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Letters supporting the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act 7,672 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and made personal phone calls urging state legislators to support the Fracking Emergency Medical Right to Know Act as of May 14, 2013.
Ohio coal-fired power plants
Letters to FirstEnergy 3,914 neighbors have sent handwritten letters and petitions urging FirstEnergy to retire their four Lake Erie coal plants as of July 15, 2011.
Letters to Senator Sherrod Brown and Senator Rob Portman 6,615 members have sent handwritten letters and petitions to Senator Brown urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
3,751 members have petitioned Senator Portman urging him to support US EPA rules that will protect our health from polluting coal plants as of January 24, 2012.
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