Miranda Leppla, J.D. – Director, Environmental Law Clinic, CWRU School of Law

Dear Colleagues:

The “Friday Lunch” rarely gets to discuss a juicy scandal. But this Friday is an exception.

Sometime in January, former Ohio General Assembly Speaker Larry Householder is scheduled to go on trial on federal racketeering charges connected to an alleged $61 million in bribes from First Energy Corp in exchange for passing a nuclear power plant bailout, House Bill 6. First Energy has admitted that it “conspired with public officials and other individuals and entities to pay millions of dollars to public officials in exchange for specific official action for First Energy Corp.’s benefit.”

This is not exactly the first time that First Energy’s political activity has been cause for scandal, or that the company has seemed to be better at getting what it wants from state government than at safely and efficiently producing and distributing electricity. It has even been called “a giant lobbying firm that runs a utility.” But First Energy is also not the only utility that has turned to bribery to get its way from state governments. For example, “five days before the Ohio case became public, federal prosecutors in Illinois announced that Commonwealth Edison Co. agreed to pay a $200 million fine to resolve an investigation into a “years-long bribery scheme.” There too the now-former House speaker, Democrat Mike Madigan, was implicated, though not charged until this year.

Here’s the irony: if a utility goes so far as to bribe legislators, that likely means it either (a) isn’t as successful as utilities often are at dealing with state rate-setting regulators, such as the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) or (b) has screwed up its business so badly that it needs more help than the regulator can give. Usually public utility politics is centered on the regulatory process.

Rate regulation involves two legitimate public interests. One is to have energy be as affordable as possible for the state’s residential and commercial consumers. The other is to ensure a stable and reliable supply. The second does require attention to the financial health of distributors and suppliers, especially as some of the business can be quite capital-intensive. But as they represent their legitimate concerns, the regulated industries in any field often become dominant, for reasons that are clichés about “regulatory capture”: companies have much more motivation to shape decisions than individual customers do; have no problem organizing themselves to lobby; have expertise about their business that can be hard to match; and tend to have much greater financial resources than whichever citizens groups organize to counter them.

Therefore in a way the amazing thing is that First Energy managed to screw-up so badly – or was so greedy – that its management decided to spend over $60 million to bribe the legislature. Apparently it wasn’t dominant enough over PUCO, or PUCO couldn’t solve its problems.

What does that tell us about PUCO, a government organization with direct influence on our wallets; about First Energy; or about utility regulation more generally? Before joining CWRU to start the Environmental Law Clinic in 2022, Randi Leppla spent five years as vice president of energy and lead energy counsel at the Ohio Environmental Council, representing the OEC before PUCO and in many other situations. She joins us to explain the scandal but also the broader politics of energy rate regulation.

In-Person and Virtual Attendance

In order to make it easy for people to protect themselves and still participate, the meetings are accessible on Zoom. Participants can register for each meeting in the same way they did for the past two years. The link is posted below.

This “dual delivery” remains a work in progress. Please be patient with any glitches. The ways we can set up video and audio to work for both people in the room and on Zoom are not perfect.

The discussion begins at 12:30 p.m., but the room should be open no later than Noon. We try to have beverages and refreshments set up soon after that. Participants should be able to sign on to Zoom also by Noon. But please remember not much will be happening online until the talk begins at 12:30 pm. Please also remember to show identification when entering Kelvin Smith Library.

Zoom participants should speak up when asked for questions or comments, or submit thoughts through Zoom’s chat function. Please keep yourself muted until you are choosing to speak.

Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. When you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. If you do not get the newsletter, you should also be able to get the information each Monday by checking http://fridaylunch.case.edu/. Then if you choose you can use the contact form on that website to request the registration link.

This week’s Zoom link for registration is:

https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEpdO2sqj8oGdI6vTz5zFZ36xIQzC312ehQ

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.

Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,

Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guest

Miranda Leppla is the director of the Environmental Law Clinic within the Milton and Charlotte Kramer Law Clinic at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, which will handle various environmental and energy matters. Miranda joined the faculty in 2022 to start the new clinic after over five years serving as the vice president of energy policy and lead energy counsel at the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC), where she led the energy team’s campaigns and initiatives to promote and advance clean energy and energy efficiency, mitigate climate change, and secure stronger public health safeguards for Ohioans. Miranda was lead counsel in all energy litigation matters, and represented the OEC, as well as other non-profits, at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, the Ohio Power Siting Board, and courts throughout the State of Ohio.

Prior to that, Miranda was in private practice for several years where she focused on litigation, natural gas utility issues, toxic torts, False Claims Act litigation, and utility-scale wind farm permitting. Miranda holds a BA in Law, Letters, & Society from The University of Chicago (2006), and a JD from The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law (2010), where she was the editor-in-chief of the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law. Miranda is admitted to practice in Ohio, as well as the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio.

Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

November 25: Thanksgiving Break

December 2: To Be Determined

December 9: To Be Determined