{"id":15627,"date":"2017-06-02T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=15627"},"modified":"2017-06-02T10:36:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-02T14:36:48","slug":"the-more-electricity-regulators-delay-the-more-customers-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2017\/06\/02\/the-more-electricity-regulators-delay-the-more-customers-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"The more electricity regulators delay, the more customers pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"simplePullQuote right\"><p><\/p>\n<\/div>Remember the old \u201cmoney booths,\u201d in which game show participants got to grab as many dollars as they could before the timer went off? Well, FirstEnergy\u2019s the lucky contestant; everyday Ohioans are supplying the cash, and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) is refusing to call time.<\/p>\n<p>The PUCO is <em>still<\/em> deciding whether to give final approval to the bailout for\u00a0the Ohio-based utility giant\u2019s\u00a0old, inefficient coal plants.\u00a0Refresher: In October, the PUCO gave a <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2016\/10\/13\/ohio-regulators-deliver-undoubtedly-unconventional-decision-in-firstenergy-bailout-case\/\">tentative $625-million subsidy<\/a> to reduce FirstEnergy\u2019s debt associated with its bad business decisions.<\/p>\n<p>PUCO procedures require regulators to solicit responses and reconsider its initial decision. Ohio commissioners, however, have allowed FirstEnergy to start collecting without the final approval. The effective start date of the tariff was January 1, 2017 \u2013 nearly five months ago.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Regulators also agreed the utility could keep its windfall even if the tentative bailout were overturned by the PUCO or the Ohio Supreme Court. So as long as the PUCO puts off the decision, FirstEnergy gets to collect the non-refundable fees. In other words, while the regulators twiddle their thumbs, the utility is raking it in.<\/p>\n<p>How much so? By the end of May, FirstEnergy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstenergycorp.com\/content\/dam\/customer\/Customer%20Choice\/Files\/Ohio\/tariffs\/OE-2017-Electric-Service.pdf\">will have collected<\/a> a massive $55 million from customers.\u00a0Meanwhile, opponents like Environmental Defense Fund can\u2019t take the case to the Ohio Supreme Court until an official decision is reached.<\/p>\n<p>The PUCO needs to decide soon. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/energy\/firstenergy-facts\">clock is ticking<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember the old \u201cmoney booths,\u201d in which game show participants got to grab as many dollars as they could before the timer went off? Well, FirstEnergy\u2019s the lucky contestant; everyday Ohioans are supplying the cash, and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) is refusing to call time. The PUCO is still deciding whether to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39893,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46898,28800],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-firstenergy","category-ohio"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The more electricity regulators delay, the more customers pay - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2017\/06\/02\/the-more-electricity-regulators-delay-the-more-customers-pay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The more electricity regulators delay, the more customers pay - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Remember the old \u201cmoney booths,\u201d in which game show participants got to grab as many dollars as they could before the timer went off? 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