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Ohio Attorney General files civil lawsuit against First Energy, Larry Householder, and others

The lawsuit aims to cut off distribution of funding from House Bill 6 until state legislature makes a decision to repeal, or repeal and replace the bill.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The state of Ohio is suing former House Speaker Larry Householder, First Energy and 13 other entities related to House Bill 6.

Wednesday, Ohio Attorney General David Yost announced a civil lawsuit aimed at prohibiting the distribution of the $1.3 billion that will be generated in January through House Bill 6.

The lawsuit would also prohibit any of the listed defendants, including Larry Householder, from lobbying for or against a HB6 repeal and replace bill, and limits Householder from using any of the money from his 501c4 that received funding from First Energy.

Yost says this entire corruption scandal has hurt the trust of Ohio voters in their elected officials. 

"Ohio's reputation among the states has been damaged as a place where you can come and do business that has a fair and clean government," said Yost.

No criminal charges are associated with this civil lawsuit.

This lawsuit is separate from the federal corruption investigation and is aimed at making sure all the players in the alleged scandal can no longer financially benefit from HB6 until a decision is made at the state level.

"The fact of the matter is this is going to require some serious skull sweat to unwind it in an appropriate and fair manner that doesn't create more victims, more disruptions, more chaos," said Yost.

If the injunction in this civil lawsuit is approved, but the state house does not pass a repeal or a repeal and replace bill for House Bill 6 before January, then your energy bill is still going to increase. 

However the new money collected will not go to Energy Harbor LLC, but instead go to the state treasury and be held there until the state legislature makes a decision on HB 6.

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