‘Lying liars who lie’: FirstEnergy’s corruption legacy haunts its climate change claims

FirstEnergy may have a legitimate point about climate change increasing storm intensity and complicating power restoration efforts—but nobody’s buying it.

According to Today in Ohio podcast hosts, the utility’s involvement in the biggest bribery scheme in history of the state has permanently damaged its credibility.

The utility wants permission from regulators to relax its power outage standards, allowing for more frequent outages each year and giving crews more time to restore power. In Cleveland, the average restoration time would increase from 135 minutes to 150 minutes.

“I think this is evidence of nobody trusting FirstEnergy, which is FirstEnergy’s own fault, because they were so corrupt,” said Chris Quinn Wednesday. “I don’t think anybody’s ever going to believe anything they say again.”

The backlash has been swift and widespread. Cleveland and Lakewood have already announced their opposition, and Bay Village has joined them, citing concerns that repeated outages already strain their public safety and city services. A bipartisan group of 19 bipartisan Ohio lawmakers has also urged the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to reject the request.

The lawmaker group warned that easing standards would have “profound economic, health and public safety implications,” particularly for households that rely on powered medical equipment or businesses that need electricity to deliver services.

Quinn acknowledged that FirstEnergy’s argument about climate change might have merit but said it ultimately doesn’t matter. “I do think they have a legitimate claim here that climate change has brought more intense storms and it’s causing them a lot more effort needed to restore power after a storm goes through,” he said. “But I don’t think it matters… because they’re lying liars who lie and bribing bribers who bribe.”

The utility’s request comes in the long shadow of its role in a $60 million bribery scheme that secured a $1.3 billion bailout of two nuclear plants. That scandal has left an indelible stain on the company’s reputation.

“I mean, that’s what they get, right? You make your bed, you lie in it, deal with it,” added Courtney Astolfi.

Listen to the discussion here.

Listen to full “Today in Ohio” episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with Editorial Board member Lisa Garvin, Impact Editor Leila Atassi and Content Director Laura Johnston.