Ohio House Bill 6, signed into law in October 2019, added new charges to electric bills to prop up aging nuclear and coal plants and rolled back the state’s clean energy standards. Its passage was later exposed as the product of a $60 million bribery and racketeering scheme, the largest public corruption case in Ohio history. Repeal laws in 2021 and 2025 eliminated the direct subsidies, but some of HB6’s changes to Ohio energy policy are still on the books.
What HB6 Did to Electric Bills
The centerpiece of HB6 was a $150 million annual fund to keep Ohio’s two nuclear plants running, Davis-Besse and Perry, then owned by FirstEnergy Solutions (which had emerged from bankruptcy as Energy Harbor). Residential customers paid 85 cents per month toward that fund. Commercial and industrial users paid more based on how much electricity they consumed.
The law also propped up two coal-fired plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation: the Kyger Creek plant in Cheshire, Ohio, and the Clifty Creek plant in Madison, Indiana. Utilities that partially owned the OVEC plants passed their costs on to customers through a surcharge originally scheduled to run through 2030. By the time the coal subsidies were repealed in 2025, Ohio ratepayers had paid roughly $683 million to keep those plants running.
HB6 also weakened Ohio’s clean energy rules. It cut the renewable portfolio standard from 12.5% to 8.5% by 2026, so utilities had to generate less electricity from renewable sources. And it effectively killed the state’s energy efficiency savings requirements for electric utilities, with all mandated efficiency programs ending in 2020.
The $60 Million Bribery Scheme
Federal prosecutors uncovered a coordinated conspiracy to buy HB6’s passage. FirstEnergy admitted to funneling roughly $60 million through Generation Now, a 501(c)(4) “dark money” nonprofit that was not required to disclose its donors. That money paid to elect sympathetic legislators, install Larry Householder as Speaker of the Ohio House, and push HB6 through the legislature.
When opponents launched a citizen referendum to repeal the law, Generation Now spent hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring national signature-collection firms to keep them from working for the repeal campaign. Operatives paid individual signature collectors $2,500 and plane tickets to stop collecting and hand over inside information. The referendum never gathered enough signatures, and HB6 stayed on the books.
Who Was Convicted
Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was convicted of racketeering conspiracy in 2023 for orchestrating the scheme. A federal judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison, and a federal appeals court upheld the conviction in 2025.
Former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges was also convicted in 2023 for his role, which included offering a $15,000 bribe to a GOP operative. Borges received a five-year federal prison sentence followed by three years of supervised release; reports indicate he was released early in late 2025.
Former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo was charged by state and federal prosecutors with accepting a $4.3 million bribe from FirstEnergy executives shortly before his appointment to lead the agency that regulates Ohio utilities. Randazzo died by suicide in April 2024 before his cases reached trial. A shell company he owned later pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $2.2 million in penalties and restitution.
FirstEnergy itself entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2021, admitting its role in the conspiracy and paying a $230 million criminal penalty.1U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. FirstEnergy Corp. Deferred Prosecution Agreement The company separately paid $100 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into misleading disclosures it made to investors. State racketeering and bribery charges against former CEO Chuck Jones and former Senior Vice President Michael Dowling went to trial in early 2026 and ended on March 31, 2026, with the jury unable to reach a verdict on any of the charges. State prosecutors have said they plan to retry the case.
How HB6 Was Repealed
House Bill 128 (2021)
The first legislative response came in 2021 with House Bill 128, which repealed the $150 million annual nuclear plant subsidy and eliminated a “decoupling” provision that had guaranteed FirstEnergy’s revenue even when customers used less electricity.2Ohio Legislature. House Bill 128 – Revise Electric Utility Service Law; Repeal Portions of HB 6 HB 128 left the OVEC coal subsidies alone, and the rollbacks to renewable energy and efficiency standards stayed in place.
House Bill 15 (2025)
It took four more years to end the OVEC coal payments. Multiple bills failed in intervening sessions. In May 2025, the legislature passed House Bill 15, which Governor DeWine signed with an effective date of August 14, 2025.3The Statehouse News Bureau. Energy Bill Eliminating Subsidies for Two Coal Power Plants From Ohio’s House Bill 6 Signed Into Law HB 15 ended the last direct generation subsidies created by HB6.
HB 15 also added several consumer protections aimed at preventing the kind of unchecked utility charges HB6 had enabled:4Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. Governor DeWine Signs House Bill 15, Marking a Win for Ohio Consumers
- Regulated utilities must now open their books before the PUCO in a full rate case every three years, replacing a system where utilities could go years without a full review.
- Electric Security Plans, which utilities had used since 2008 to add extra charges between formal rate cases, are eliminated.
- New safeguards apply to competitive electricity marketers who lure customers with low introductory rates and then sharply increase prices.
- Regulated distribution utilities are barred from owning power generation, reinforcing Ohio’s competitive electricity market structure.
Refunds on Your Electric Bill
In November 2025, the PUCO ordered FirstEnergy’s regulated distribution companies to pay a combined $250 million in penalties and customer refunds tied to HB6 misconduct. About $180 million of that covers restitution for the Rider DMR, a grid modernization charge FirstEnergy collected from customers but used to support its struggling coal and nuclear generation rather than to upgrade the distribution system. An additional $6.64 million covers billing transactions that lacked proper documentation. The refunds are being issued to customers over the course of three billing cycles.
What’s Still on the Books
The direct subsidies are gone, but two significant HB6 provisions remain law. Ohio’s renewable portfolio standard is still set at the reduced 8.5% target rather than the pre-HB6 goal of 12.5%. And the state’s energy efficiency savings requirements for electric utilities, ended in 2020, have never been restored. Multiple legislative attempts to reinstate efficiency mandates have failed, most recently dying during lame-duck sessions without a floor vote.
For Ohio ratepayers, the monthly surcharges funding nuclear and coal plants have stopped, and restitution from FirstEnergy is arriving on bills. The structural changes HB6 made to Ohio’s clean energy trajectory will shape the state’s electricity mix for years. Ongoing regulatory action related to FirstEnergy and HB6 can be tracked through the PUCO’s docketing system.