Speaker Cupp reacts to new HB6 charges

Jul. 24—COLUMBUS — More fallout from Ohio's House Bill 6 scandal came down on Thursday, with FirstEnergy Corp. being charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud, forcing them to pay a penalty of $230 million.

FirstEnergy bribed former State House Speaker Larry Householder with more than $60 million to pass House Bill 6, which heavily favored nuclear and coal companies with bailouts and other benefits. Householder was removed from his role as Speaker and eventually the general assembly, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine repealed parts of the bill back in March. The partial repeal required FirstEnergy to refund $26 million to customers across Ohio.

Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) gave his reaction to the news, saying that the repeal has kept FirstEnergy from further benefiting from the bill.

"House Bill 6 is mostly repealed, so the part that dealt with FirstEnergy is all gone, it's not in the law anymore," he said. "There's been an expectation since the indictment of (Householder) and some others a year ago that FirstEnergy would come under scrutiny as well, so I think this is just another shoe that's fell in what's going to be a continuing process of rooting out corruption from that situation."

Cupp also believes that more details and charges will come to light, and that the state should not have to tighten legislation to prevent high-level corruption in the future.

"The allegations are that somebody violated existing law, so if people would follow existing law, we shouldn't have any problem," he said. "Once everything is out and it appears that there are some gaps or holes to fill, I'm sure the legislature will address that, but this time it is mostly an enforcement action for people who have been alleged to violate existing laws."

He went on to say that the scandal is still a complicated situation that is being monitored closely, but nobody in the state legislature has been found to be involved outside of Householder.