F. Left News

We’re witnessing killings and repression at a scale unprecedented in the recent history of Israel and Palestine. The High Commissioner’s report underscores the gravity and severity of the abuses taking place on the ground. More than 1,200 Israeli and foreign nationals in Israel and 29,700 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, have been killed since October 7, according to local authorities, amid hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups that have included unlawful attacks and mass atrocities. Meanwhile, killings, administrative detention, displacement and settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank reached years-long highs.

The heinous crimes carried out by Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups since October 7 are the abhorrent legacy of decades-long impunity for unlawful attacks by all parties and Israel’s crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians. The international community’s long-standing unwillingness to act to hold perpetrators to account has fueled grave abuses.

As Israeli authorities contemplate forcing the over 1 million Palestinians in Rafah to again flee when there’s nowhere safe in Gaza—a move that would be unlawful and have catastrophic consequences — states should act to prevent further atrocities.

Human Rights Watch has found that Israel is not complying with at least one of the binding provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice in the genocide case brought by South Africa. States should use all forms of leverage, including targeted sanctions and an arms embargo, to press the Israeli government to comply with the binding order and to press the Israeli government and Palestinian armed groups to end unlawful attacks and other grave abuses. The lives of millions of civilians hang in the balance.

With his insights as a historian of the modern UK, David Edgerton looks at Labour’s new affinity with the Tories

The post Keir Starmer’s bad history appeared first on Red Pepper.

Labour’s spending plans are inadequate to rebuild public services. We need to new movements for more radical change, argue John McDonnell MP and Andrew Fisher

The post The economic crisis facing Labour appeared first on Red Pepper.

The ‘carnation revolution’ saw soldiers, workers and communities join forces to overthrow fascism and challenge capitalist power. Peter Robinson traces events from April 1974

The post Portugal’s forgotten revolution appeared first on Red Pepper.

The genocide in Gaza demands we fight for Palestine, by targeting circuits of power elsewhere. Toufic Haddad writes from Jerusalem

The post For Palestine, bring the Hague home! appeared first on Red Pepper.

Bad-faith policing of anti-semitism has led to rampant Islamophobia. In the global north, we have become conditioned to watching Muslims die, argues Maura Finkelstein

The post Islamophobia and spectacles of Muslim death appeared first on Red Pepper.

Muhammad Nadeem reviews Hostile Homelands by Azad Essa on the deepening ties between India and Israel

The post Hostile Homelands – review appeared first on Red Pepper.

Palestinian literature has long provided space for resistance, healing, and growth, write Margarita Isabel Asensio Pastor and Eman Mhanna

The post Palestine in poetry and prose appeared first on Red Pepper.

The academic and activist died ten years ago. Dialogue and engagement were among his many lasting gifts, write Yasmin Gunaratnam and Mike Dibb

The post Listening with Stuart Hall appeared first on Red Pepper.

In this previously unpublished text, written in 1961, Stuart Hall surveys rhythmic interplays of race, culture, love and power in the film Shadows

The post Stuart Hall reviews ‘Shadows’ appeared first on Red Pepper.

Declaring "I will no longer be complicit in genocide," U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire Sunday to protest Israel's annihilation of Palestinians in Gaza. His "extreme action born of desperation" has stirred wildly divergent responses. To the right, he was ill, extremist, contributing to "political violence" in the name of imaginary crimes; to the left, his was a brave, dire act of justifiable rage at an ongoing "stream of horrors in Gaza." Grievously, "Bushnell died so that Gaza may live."

"My name is Aaron Bushnell. I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide," Bushnell says tensely on his livestream, breathing fast as he walks in fatigues toward D.C.'s Israeli Embassy. "I'm about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it's not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. Free Palestine!" At the embassy he sets down his still-recording phone, dons his cap, walks to the gate, douses himself, tosses a metal container that loudly rolls away, lights himself ablaze and yells "Free Palestine!" as flames engulf him. Most recordings blur his body as he repeats "Free Palestine," then screams in agony and collapses. Frantic police and Secret Service rush in shouting "Get on the ground"; one imbecile trains his gun on the burning body as another figure yells, “I don’t need guns - I need fire extinguishers!” Bushnell died soon after.

Since Oct. 7, the Israeli military has killed almost 30,000 Palestinians - now 29,878 - two-thirds women and children; thousands more are dead under rubble, with over 70,215 wounded, most displaced, and many facing starvation as Israel blocks aid; in its latest war crime, Israel halted a medical evacuation convoy in Khan Yunis, detaining a paramedic and making others remove their clothes. Yet the U.S. fast-tracks billions in weaponry and has vetoed three UN ceasefire resolutions supported by the world's international organizations, millions of protesters and the Hague. Israel and the U.S. now stand alone as what Veterans For Peace rightly deem "madmen arsonists (abetting) the slaughter of innocents"; they specifically blast U.S policymakers "swaddled in privilege" who take their orders from corporate powers - Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and other "merchants of death" - who "as much as lit the match for Aaron Bushnell, the collateral damage of the ongoing conflagration in Palestine."

Bushnell joined the Air Force in 2020; after graduating from basic training “top of flight and top of class," he was a cyber-defense operations specialist stationed at San Antonio-Lackland Air Force base in Texas. He reportedly grew increasingly disillusioned with the military, especially after George Floyd’s killing, and became involved in left-leaning groups, including helping the unhoused in San Antonio. Though he considered leaving the military, he decided to stay until his time was up in May, after which he was enrolled in computer science classes at a New Hampshire college. His social media profile featured a Palestinian flag; friends describe him as "a force of joy," "an amazingly gentle, kind, compassionate person," principled, "with a strong sense of justice." He had earlier asked the Atlanta Community Press Collective to preserve and report on footage of his fiery protest; it was also posted by a freelance journalist, with the self-immolation blurred, after Bushnell's family consented to her sharing it online.

Bushnell's death has prompted fierce debate across the political spectrum, with the media often twisting, diluting or misconstruing his action. Digging for easy or ugly answers, "smearmeisters" found Bushnell had grown up in a Massachusetts religious group called the Community of Jesus; in a successful lawsuit last year, former members alleged abuse in a "charismatic sect" that "created an environment of control, intimidation and humiliation (that) inflicted enduring harms." Other coverage omitted all context with headlines that didn't mention Gaza, hysterically charged "the Left" is "a death cult," and primly noted U.S. military policy forbids service members from engaging in "partisan political activity" or wearing their uniform during "speeches, interviews, marches, or other activities," presumably including burning yourself to death to protest genocide. And friggin' Tom 'Red Scare' Cotton huffed about "this individual," "extremist leanings," and "compromising national security" by having a functioning moral compass.

Meanwhile, hawks and Zionists who for months have been cheerleading a fascist government's carpet bombing of two million trapped Gazans, over half of them children, were outraged by what Israeli Consul-General Anat Sultan-Dadon called an act of "hate and incitement toward Israel." In a head-spinning op-ed, the Jerusalem Post argued "an act of suicidal political protest is another step toward more political violence," with "the line between self-immolation and a suicide bombing" so thin one can easily "extend that violence onto others." "The far-Left already believes it is grappling with an evil that justifies violence," it went on. "Bushnell was deluded into thinking there was a 'genocide' occurring...Another devil in the radical-left’s pantheon of demons (is) calling Israelis "colonizers.' Israel is also accused (of) 'apartheid'...and protesters in New York City have called for 'resistance'...There may be many more Bushnells waiting in the wings...Those willing to kill themselves for a cause may have no qualms about killing others."

Their delirium sharply contrasts with the pained, wrenching, mournful, empathic responses of those who, like Bushnell, are consumed by helpless rage at the devastation wrought by Israel on innocents - with US money and complicity - but who still feel horror at what Bushnell felt he had to do. "I am moved by his conviction and his anger, but grieved by the loss of his life," one wrote. "More death will not heal the wounds of war." Still, they hotly refuted the inevitable mental health trope too often dredged up with, "Anyone who thinks he was mentally unwell needs to check their humanity." "Please, stop saying Aaron Bushnell was mentally ill," wrote Joshua Frank of CounterPunch. "The real mental illness is witnessing a genocide taking place and not doing a thing to stop it." Bushnell was "rational and clear about his political reasoning, which resonates with (the) majority of the world," wrote another of his "legitimate moral outrage and courage." "May his sacrifice not be in vain, may his last words on this earth ring true."

At protests and vigils, many held responsible Joe Biden, "who has ignored every peaceful form of protest." "In a few minutes," one said, "Aaron Bushnell exhibited more courage than every member of Congress." Others hoped he will inspire "more soldiers with a conscience to raise their voices," and we will "honor the message he left." Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah: "He gave his life so people in Gaza might live. There’s no greater love than that." The Palestinian Youth Movement praised his moral clarity as a ‘shaheed,’ or witness,’ "whose final moment in life is as a witness to injustice." Caitlin Johnstone, who watched the uncensored video - "I figured I owe him that much" - cited a Buddhist monk on self-immolation: "It is done to wake us up." In this, she echoed Bushnell's wrenching Facebook post the morning before his death. “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’” he wrote. "The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now."

Aaron Bushnell felt he had to do something else. May he rest in peace.

The unfreezing of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s investigations into HB 6 gives the beleaguered agency a chance to demonstrate independence from the utilities that saddled ratepayers with unfair and higher electric bills.

PUCO issued its first stay of its HB 6 investigations on Aug. 24, 2022, two years after the indictments of former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder and four associates. It extended the stay twice more through Householder’s March 2023 conviction and the federal and state indictments of scandal-plagued Sam Randazzo, the former PUCO chairman.

The stay officially ended Feb. 23.

During that time, federal and state prosecutors along with intervenors in the HB 6 audits have revealed much of the corruption enabled by the 2019 law Householder rammed through the legislature to benefit FirstEnergy Corp. and its partners that own Ohio Valley Electric Corp. (OVEC).

Meanwhile, PUCO has been revealed to give the enablers of HB 6 a free hand to obstruct public disclosure and perpetuate the unfairness of the law that was shaped by former PUCO chairman Sam Randazzo.

Reporting by Checks & Balances Project has shown how PUCO staff members blindly accepted utilities’ claims that publicly available information were trade secrets and allowed the companies a free hand in redacting details from the public audits into the effects of the law.

PUCO staff have been revealed to order the auditing firm hired to investigate HB 6 to water down its reports, and the agency has refused to reveal the identities of the staff who recommended granting the July 2023 protective order that hid many embarrassing deals from the public.

Some avenues of investigation for PUCO include:

• The side deals with major utility customers that Randazzo enabled at the expense of ratepayers, which reporter Jessie Balmert has shown. Former Gov.  Ted Strickland tried to eliminate side deals in 2008 but was blocked by then-House speaker Jon Husted, who is now Ohio’s lieutenant governor. Husted, a longtime Randazzo ally, has recently called for the repeal of HB 6.

• Randazzo’s influence as chairman on multiple cases that came before PUCO during his short, inglorious tenure.

• How the bailout of FirstEnergy’s nuclear plants enabled the eventual sale of those plants for a huge profit after the FirstEnergy’s nuclear power subsidiary emerged from bankruptcy.

There are many leads to follow. Does PUCO have the will to pursue them?

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

 You may also want to read:

HB 6 prevents OVEC from replacing old coal-fired plants with anything better

PUCO let utility redact information from audit examining electricity prices
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Sam Randazzo

Sam Randazzo, the former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman indicted for corruption by federal and Ohio prosecutors, spent much of his career fighting renewable energy projects.

One of his longtime collaborators was Kevon Martis, the roving anti-renewable energy activist who will appear Saturday at an anti-solar rally in Mount Vernon, Ohio.

During a May 2017 event in Ohio, Randazzo went so far as to call Martis a “hero” for his work fighting renewable projects.

Randazzo and Martis appeared together in a 2014 event in Greenwich, Ohio, in which Martis repeated undocumented claims that residents living near a wind turbine had to sleep in their basement because the turbine made too much noise.

Checks & Balances Project reported in 2018 about Randazzo’s work with Martis and other renewable opponents.

During that time, Randazzo was being paid by FirstEnergy Corp., which he failed to report on his state financial disclosure forms, according to the Feb. 9 indictment of Randazzo by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

As C&BP has reported, anti-renewable energy rallies led by Martis routinely feature provably false accusations about wind and solar projects. During a Feb. 5, 2022, rally in Trufant, Mich., one speaker blamed a nearby wind turbine for a home’s lower property values; C&BP showed that home was across the street from a notorious commercial animal feed lot licensed to release 5.4 million gallons of animal waste.

Kevon Martis

The website for Martis’ Interstate Informed Citizens Coalition touts a 2010 study by Illinois property appraiser Michael McCann, which claims a 25 percent to 40 percent decrease in value for properties inside of two miles from a wind farm.

However, further analysis of that study shows that properties near the Mendota Hills and Shady Oaks wind farms in Illinois’ Lee County have risen steadily in value since McCann’s study.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

You may also want to read:

False claims common at Martis’ anti-renewable rallies

Claims That Wind Farms Lower Property Values Undercut by Real Estate Data

Opponents of Wind Energy in Montcalm County Stage Rally

The post Who’s a hero to indicted Sam Randazzo? Kevon Martis appeared first on Checks and Balances Project.

Lenawee County Commissioner Kevon Martis

Whenever Kevon Martis, who speaks at multiple rallies against renewable energy projects, appears, false claims are sure to follow. Speakers claim that renewable energy projects lower property values or make people sick. Many times, those claims are provably false.

Martis is scheduled to appear Saturday, Feb. 24, at a rally in Mount Vernon, Ohio, against a potential solar farm there. He will be there with Robert Bryce, a fellow renewable energy opponent with long ties to the natural gas industry.

A Lenawee County, Mich., commissioner, Martis has gained prominence since his successful effort to stop the construction of a wind farm in Riga Township, Mich. He regularly appears at rallies around the country against renewable projects and works with local zoning boards to write ordinances that limit the siting of renewable projects.

Checks & Balances Project attended a Feb. 5, 2022, rally against wind projects in Trufant, Mich., in which speakers said the proximity of wind turbines to a home wrecked its value and that life in another county was unbearable, even though no construction had started on the wind project there.

In the Trufant rally, real estate agent Marcy Myers told the crowd that an unspecified home she sold in Alma, Mich., should have sold for $80,000, not the $31,500 she was able to get for it. She later said the home was in foreclosure.

C&BP examined the list of 207 recent home sales by Myers’ company, Your Team Realty, on the real estate website Zillow and found a May 2021 sale for a home that Myers sold on W. Jefferson Road in Alma for $31,500.

That home is the only one in the list of 207 homes sold by Your Team Realty that sold for that price between 2010 and 2022, according to the company’s record on Zillow.

County real estate records show the home sold in October 2011 for $53,000 and in April 2019 for $45,000. It sold again on Sept. 27, 2022, for $113,000.

An examination of aerial photos of the property on Google Maps indicates a more likely reason for the home has lost value beyond its poor condition and unpaved driveway: It sits across the street from a large livestock feed lot.

Michigan environmental records show that the feed lot, Courter Farms, is licensed to hold 3,500 animals and to release 5.4 million gallons of animal waste a year. In 2012, according to a Michigan State University report, Courter Farms produced 51,739 tons of waste, the third-largest production of waste in the state.

Martis has often cited a 2010 study from Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., that shows that wind turbines hurt property values.

The website for Martis’ Interstate Informed Citizens Coalition also touts a 2010 study by Illinois property appraiser Michael McCann, which claims a 25 percent to 40 percent decrease in value for properties inside of two miles from a wind farm.

However, further analysis of that study shows that properties near the Mendota Hills and Shady Oaks wind farms in Illinois’ Lee County have risen steadily in value since McCann’s study.

For example, McCann cited a home on Beemerville Road in Compton, Ill, within two miles of the Mendota Hills wind farm. That home, according to his report and county records, sold for $367,000 in 2003. County records show it sold for $450,000 in 2017, and Zillow estimates that it is now worth $633,000, a 41 percent increase since 2017.

Even closer to the wind turbines are homes on a cul de sac on Compton’s Brook Meadow Drive, which were developed after 2005. One home sold for $174,000 in 2016 and again in 2021 for $289,000, a 65 percent increase in five years. Zillow estimates it is now worth $333,000, a 91 percent increase over its 2016 value.

Meanwhile, homes on Ogee Road in nearby Earlville, Ill. that McCann said had higher values because they were more than two miles from the wind farms barely increased in value according to Zillow estimates. One home, which McCann and County records show sold for $285,000 in 2004 is now worth $297,700, according to Zillow estimates.

Illinois professional license records show that McCann’s appraisal license expired on Sept. 30, 2017. McCann did not respond to requests for comment.

There are also multiple other reports that undercut claims that wind farms lower property values, including studies in 2009, 2013 and 2021 by Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories and a 2016 report from Massachusetts.

As reporters Michael Thomas and Emily Atkin wrote in February 2023, Martis and his allies were behind heated opposition to a proposal solar farm in Conway and Cohocah townships in Michigan.

Thomas and Atkin wrote about local resident Heather Hodge encountered vehement opposition at a local meeting about the project and then discovered “that some of her neighbors were fearful. At a local high school basketball game, someone told her the project could give her cancer. Shortly after that, Hodge saw a Facebook post from a local parent claiming it would dramatically reduce property values.”

Hodge, Thomas and Atkin wrote, traced those false posts to Martis and his allies.

During the Trufant rally, Midland County, Mich., resident David Stevens told protesters that the last four years of his life have been “the worst of my life” since the approval of a wind project near his home.

“It’s only going to get worse,” Stevens said.

However, construction on the Meridian Wind Farm only started in 2020 and the farm wasn’t operating when Stevens spoke. It opened in April 2023.

Stevens also claimed that economic activity in Midland County has ground to a halt.

However, federal labor records show that workers in that county make more per week than in other Michigan countries outside the major metropolitan areas of Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

You may also want to read:

Claims That Wind Farms Lower Property Values Undercut by Real Estate Data

Opponents of Wind Energy in Montcalm County Stage Rally

False Claims About Infrasound Sound Dominate Wind Debates

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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost

For three and a half years, some of the main actors in Ohio’s HB 6 corruption scandal seemed to skate past any legal consequences for their actions, but a pair of recent indictments show that justice delayed may no longer mean justice denied.

On Dec. 4, former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) chairman Sam Randazzo was indicted on federal corruption charges for taking a $4.3 million bribe from Akron-based utility FirstEnergy. On Feb. 9, Randazzo was indicted again, this time by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost on state charges related to that bribe and his subsequent actions as PUCO chairman.

This time, however, Randazzo had company — former FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and ex-senior vice president of external affairs Michael Dowling, who were indicted on charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and multiple other charges.

“Charles ‘Chuck’ Jones, Michael Dowling and Sam Randazzo were literally as thick as thieves,” the indictment by Yost’s office said. “Together, they would steal money from FirstEnergy, write legislative provisions worth unearned millions of dollars to FirstEnergy, legally guarantee continued FirstEnergy’s profitability and take over the state government in a way that allowed FirstEnergy to regulate itself.”

In a corruption scandal that started in 2017 and continues today, FirstEnergy and its affiliate funneled more than $60 million to former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder to help him secure the speakership, elect his allies to the state legislature and then pass a law that bailed out the company’s failing nuclear and coal-fired power plants.

Although the nuclear plant bailouts of HB 6 were repealed in April 2021, subsidies for two coal-fired plants built in the 1950s remain, costing Ohio ratepayers at least $100 million a year.

Despite the wide fallout from the scandal, only two participants – Householder and former Republican Party chairman Matt Borges – have been convicted, while two others have pleaded guilty. A fifth original defendant, lobbyist Neil Clark, committed suicide in 2021 as the revelations about his role continued to emerge.

Jones and Dowling arranged for Householder to receive the money through two 501c4 nonprofit organizations allowed to conceal their donors. Householder then used the money to power his political organization and to pay for improvements to his second home in Florida.

Former PUCO chair Sam Randazzo

The alliance between FirstEnergy and Householder also helped elect Republicans Mike DeWine and Jon Husted as Ohio’s governor and lieutenant governor, enabled the passage of HB 6 and Randazzo’s appointment as PUCO chairman.

Randazzo, a Columbus attorney with long connections with the state’s utility and fossil fuel industries, helped write HB6, even after he became PUCO chairman.

FirstEnergy, meanwhile, in July 2021 signed a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors and agreed to pay a $230 million fine. The company denied wrongdoing, but they acknowledged in the agreement that the company led by Jones and Dowling “paid $4.3 million dollars to (Randazzo) through his consulting company in return for (Randazzo) performing official action in his capacity as PUCO Chairman to further FirstEnergy Corp.’s interests relating to passage of nuclear legislation and other specific FirstEnergy Corp. legislative and regulatory priorities, as requested and as opportunities arose.”

Numerous details in the deferred prosecution agreement surfaced in the state’s indictment of Randazzo, Jones and Dowling.

Checks & Balances Project tracked the various participants in the case to show where they stand legally:

An activist investor, Kiani ran a hedge fund, Cove Key, that invested in FirstEnergy Solutions (FES], the nuclear power subsidiary of FirstEnergy, in January 2018. FES filed for bankruptcy in March 2018 and needed the subsidy provided by HB6 to emerge from bankruptcy successfully. As the CEO of FES, Kiani directed the payment of $43 million to Generation Now, the 501c4 nonprofit used to funnel bribes to Householder. During the 2023 trial of Householder and Borges, a witness said Kiani stood to make $100 million from the sale of the company, once HB 6 passed. FirstEnergy Solutions emerged from bankruptcy in early 2020 as Energy Harbor with Kiani still as its CEO. Energy Harbor agreed to sell its nuclear plants in March 2023, a sale that was approved this month by federal regulators.

A lobbyist for the Oxley Group in Columbus, Cespedes represented FirstEnergy Solutions, the corporate subsidiary that operated the two nuclear power plants. Cespedes “facilitated the flow of funds between FirstEnergy Solutions, FirstEnergy Service, Partners for Progress, Inc. and Generation Now,” the dark money groups financing the HB6 efforts, according to a lawsuit filed against FirstEnergy by Attorney General Dave Yost’s office. Cespedes pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering charges stemming from the HB6 scandal and testified against Borges and Householder in March 2023. He is cooperating with federal authorities and has not been sentenced.

An Ohio political operative, Longstreth was the main consultant for all of Householder’s political operations. He ran Generation Now, the dark money nonprofit that funneled $60 million from FirstEnergy Corp. and FirstEnergy Solutions to Householder. Longstreth was charged with participating in a racketeering conspiracy in July 2020, and he pleaded guilty in September 2020. Longstreth testified against Householder and Borges in the March 2023 federal trial of both men. He is cooperating with federal authorities and has not been sentenced.

Gov. Mike DeWine

Ohio Gov. Michael DeWine is one of the state’s most durable elected officials, having been a U.S. representative and senator, state attorney general and governor for two terms. He was first elected governor in 2018 after a campaign backed by the same interests – FirstEnergy, its executives and affiliates – that supported Householder and HB 6. After his election, DeWine, Husted, Jones and Dowling celebrated at a Dec. 18, 2018, dinner during which they discussed Randazzo as PUCO chairman. DeWine named Randazzo as PUCO chairman, which enabled Randazzo to shape HB 6 and benefit FirstEnergy. In the deferred prosecution agreement reached by FirstEnergy with federal prosecutors, DeWine was mentioned frequently as “State Official 1.” DeWine has been subpoenaed to testify in the ongoing civil case against FirstEnergy by investors.

A former Ohio House speaker, Husted mounted a 2018 race for governor before joining DeWine’s ticket as the nominee for lieutenant governor. After the election, he was instrumental in getting his longtime ally Randazzo chosen as PUCO chairman. Husted had a long record opposing renewable energy as a state House member, including derailing a proposed plan to increase the amount of renewable energy generated in the state. In 2019, Husted worked with Jones and Dowling of FirstEnergy to ensure the nuclear power plant bailout would last 10 years. In the deferred prosecution agreement reached by FirstEnergy with federal prosecutors, Husted was mentioned frequently as “State Official 2.” Husted, who has also been subpoenaed in the FirstEnergy civil case, has now called for the repeal of HB 6.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

HB 6 prevents OVEC from replacing old coal-fired plants with anything better

PUCO let utility redact information from audit examining electricity prices
OVEC power plants were losing between $150,000 and $175,000 a day, emails show

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The post Delayed justice finally comes calling for HB 6 players appeared first on Checks and Balances Project.

At Julian Assange's extradition hearing, the right of all of us to expose what governments try to hide is at stake, writes Richard Norton-Taylor

The post The Assange ruling has wide ramifications for journalism and whistleblowing appeared first on Red Pepper.

The utilities that share ownership of the Ohio Valley Electric Corp. (OVEC) have closed all or some of the units at 28 coal-fired power plants since 2010, citing environmental concerns, high costs and age as some of the reasons for their closing, a Checks & Balances Project analysis shows.

The closures removed at least 22,527 MW of generating capacity at the plants, which are all located in the area serviced by the PJM regional transmission organization, which serves Ohio and a variety of Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic states.

Yet these same utilities, known as the sponsoring companies, continue to keep open OVEC’s two coal-fired power plants – the Clifty Creek and Kyger Creek facilities – even though they have the same pollution problems, high costs and aging parts as the plants that were closed.

That’s because Ohio’s HB 6 law incentivizes OVEC and the utility owners of the OVEC plants to maintain their uneconomic, polluting status quo at customer expense. The law, passed after utility interests bribed Ohio House speaker Larry Householder, also allows the two power plants to run at will and send its electricity to the power grid even if cheaper power is available.

An audit into the effects of HB 6 has shown that OVEC has overpaid for coal, lost money on the electricity it supplies the grid and could replace its coal plants with those that burn natural gas for less money. That’s despite continued attempts by OVEC and the sponsoring companies to limit public access to key parts of the audit.

The sponsoring companies are the utilities that banded together in the 1950s to create OVEC to supply electricity to power a nuclear enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, operated by then U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. After the Piketon plant closed, OVEC sold the electricity generated by its two plants on the open market.

The profiles of many of the closed plants fit the profile of the two OVEC plants. For example, Duke Energy’s Killen and J.M. Stuart coal plants in Adams County, Ohio, closed in 2018 after the Sierra Club negotiated their closing with Duke, which said in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the two plants were losing money and would never be profitable.

The ongoing audit of the OVEC plants by London Economics International (LEI) has concluded that Clifty Creek and Kyger Creek lost money during 2020 and may not be profitable without the subsidies provided by HB 6.

Emails between officials at Duke Energy, one of the OVEC sponsoring companies, showed that the OVEC plants were losing between $150,000 and $175,000 a day in April 2020.

FirstEnergy, the Akron-based utility that led the fight for HB 6, has closed two of its largest coal plants in 2019 and 2020 — the Bruce Mansfield and W.H. Sammis plants. Both were losing money, FirstEnergy reported in its SEC filings, and both faced federal environmental sanctions.

Both plants had longstanding environmental issues, including violations of mercury and air toxics standardsand excessive sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution.

Instead of borrowing more money to fit its plants with pollution-control equipment, FirstEnergy closed them, which removed the plants from production.

That, however, has not happened with OVEC and its Clifty Creek and Kyger Creek power plants. OVEC has borrowed more than $1 billion to install scrubbers to limit emissions even though it was clear that coal-fired plants were on the decline.

If the plants don’t run at will, they won’t generate revenues that enable the companies to pay off their debt. The law also says that if OVEC decided to prematurely shutter Clifty Creek and Kyger Creek, the company’s owners would not receive any help to pay off OVEC’s debt. So, OVEC keeps the plants running at will and generating electricity that costs far more than that produced by other plants knowing that Ohio ratepayers will have to cover the costs.

SEC filings from the sponsoring companies note that they are the hook for paying off OVEC’s debts.

For example, AES Ohio, which owns 4.9 percent of OVEC, said in a 2023 SEC filing that “as of June 30, 2023, AES Ohio could be responsible for the repayment of 4.9%, of $53.7 million, of $1.1 billion OVEC debt obligations if they came due.”

So far, regulators in the states served by the utilities that own OVEC have allowed the company’s operations to continue. But there are signs that is changing. Michigan’s Public Service Commission issued a Section 7 warning to Indiana & Michigan Power, an OVEC owner, that called its power costs “uneconomic.”

Earlier this month, FirstEnergy reversed its plan to close two coal-fired plants in West Virginia by 2030, saying the Fort Martin and Harrison plants could not be replaced by other generating sources in time.

Also, Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, a longtime coal industry ally and supporter of indicted utility regulator Sam Randazzo, said HB 6 has outlived its usefulness and should be repealed.

“I think that anything that was connected to House Bill 6 needs to be completely removed,” Husted told reporter Natalie Fahmy of WCMH. “The people who are accountable for it are being held accountable, some are already being convicted. We would all be better off if we just stripped everything.”

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

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