A FirstEnergy customer filed what could become a class-action lawsuit in an effort to make the electricity company refund customers for rate hikes that resulted from a billion-dollar nuclear bailout now at the center of a corruption scandal, Cleveland.com reported. The lawsuit filed by Jacob Smith accuses the Akron-based utility of committing civil racketeering by bribing law Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to introduce House Bill 6, then illegally bankrolling a dark-money campaign to pressure legislators into supporting the bill and fending off a ballot initiative to repeal it. The goal of the scheme was to deprive ratepayers of money through the law that required them to pay a monthly surcharge on power the company delivered, the lawsuit says. The 34-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus also asks a federal judge to grant class-action status, a move that would allow hundreds of thousands of customers from across the state to join as plaintiffs and seek refunds. House Bill 6 required every Ohio customer to pay a new monthly surcharge that ranged from 85 cents for residential customers to $2,400 for operators of large industrial plants. It also stripped requirements that traditional utility companies generate a certain percentage of the power they provide from renewable energy, which supporters said would result in a net savings for consumers.
