Governor Mike DeWine’s Utility Cash Pipeline (and Dave Yost’s Cleanup Act): How Big Energy Keeps Winning While Ohio’s Water Loses

Today, we’re playing connect-the-dots.

On one side: Ohio’s coal-ash ponds, questionable pipelines, and “don’t drink the tap” water vibes. On the other: campaign reports showing utilities and fossil-fuel interests cozying up to Columbus.

In between sits Gov. Mike DeWine, who signed the now-infamous House B6 bailout, a massive corporate love letter to failing energy companies, energy companies we know have been wrapped in scandal after scandal, contamination story after contamination story, and have tried desperately to kick the liability can down the road from themselves to contractors and shell companies.

As sh*t all too often rolls down hill, today we’re going to examine this disaster from Governor Mike DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost’s actions.

This is The Song That Doesn’t End

Ohioans like to think their water comes from the tap; clean, simple, and safe. But in reality? It flows straight through a political pipeline greased with utility cash, and Governor Mike DeWine is the guy guarding the valve.

For years, Ohio’s biggest energy players, the likes of FirstEnergy, AEP, Duke, Marathon, – pick your favorite poison, essentially – have shoveled money into the campaign coffers of politicians who just so happen to look the other way when rivers run brown, wells run dry, and cancer clusters rise in small towns.

The worst part? This isn’t the first time Ohio Politicians have been caught doing it and they’re still doing it; we need to look no further than Ohio’s HB6 scandal to explain why the big energy companies and Ron Froh are operating without consequence.

It’s not public service. It’s corporate customer service.

DeWine: Governor of Utilities, Not People

Let’s not pretend, here, that Governor Mike DeWine is a hero. Because DeWine’s office has been a revolving door for utility influence.

When Ohioans begged for accountability after the HB 6 nuclear bribery scandal, he didn’t crack down on corruption. He shrugged, signed, and cashed. And what remains? Communities still can’t drink their water without fear, but Duke Energy and friends never miss a payout.

The Roll Call of Polluters With Checkbooks

Everything you need to know starts with Campaign Finance records. Here’s the big corporations who bought a seat at DeWine’s table:

• Duke Energy: $22,500. They keep the lights on, and apparently the Governor’s loyalty, too.
• NiSource/Columbia Gas: $21,000. Because who doesn’t love skyrocketing gas bills and gas in your groundwater?
• Dominion Energy: $14,200. Nothing says “public service” like taking donations from the same companies you’re supposed to regulate.
• FirstEnergy: $12,708 on the books (plus $2.5 million in dark money behind the curtain). If that name rings a bell, it should: they’re the ones at the center of the HB6 bribery scandal.
• Ohio Coal Association: $12,700. Coal is dying, but its PAC still buys love letters from Columbus.
• Marathon Petroleum: $12,700 from both Ohio AND Michigan for a combined $25,000. Because if Ohio can’t breathe, at least your SUV can.
• AEP (American Electric Power): $12,500 in 2018, then another $25,000+ in 2021 after the FBI kicked in doors over HB6. Shameless doesn’t even begin to cover it.
• Dayton Power & Light (AES Ohio): $10,000. Chipping in so regulators look the other way while plants dump waste into the Ohio River.
• DTE Energy, Enbridge, TransCanada, Chesapeake, EQT, BP, ExxonMobil…the list reads like a who’s who of companies that turn clean water into a toxic liability.

The Timeline of “Coincidence”

2018: Energy money pours in.

Feb. 4, 2019: DeWine taps Sam Randazzo to chair Ohio’s utility commission (PUCO). Environmental advocates practically set off the klaxons. Later disclosures show FirstEnergy tied his actions to a $4.3M payment. 

July 23, 2019: DeWine signs HB6 within hours of final passage, locking in a corruption-soaked bailout that gutted clean-energy standards and juiced legacy plants the likes of Killen, Stuart, Beckjord, and many more.

2020–2025: Indictments, guilty pleas, and convictions roll through the HB6 orbit. Editorial boards call the scandal a pay-to-play clinic. (Who could’ve guessed?) 

2020: FBI hauls off Larry Householder in a bribery scandal that makes Watergate look like a parking ticket.

2021–2022: Utilities keep donating. DeWine keeps smiling. Ohioans keep boiling water notices on the fridge.

Funny how that works out, huh?

Every dollar these companies poured into DeWine’s campaign is another reason Ohio towns can’t get a straight answer on contamination, unlined coal ash ponds, or methane leaks. Instead of fixing the problem, Ohio leadership plays PR for the same companies leaching poison into streams and aquifers.

And while the Governor insists he’s just doing what’s “best for Ohio,” let’s be honest: the only Ohio he’s protecting is spelled O-H-I-O-I-L.

Meanwhile, watchdogs and energy reporters keep documenting utility fraud and corruption trends that land squarely on consumers and the environment.

Ohio is not special here; it’s just especially brazen. 

Attorney General Dave Yost is No Better

If DeWine is the utility lobbyist-in-chief, AG Dave Yost is the guy who took some utility money, then tried to clean the mess, while dodging questions about how messy it really was.

Dave Yost took the checks, and then sued the hand that fed him.

For example:

• AEP shows up on his 2018 cycle with $12,000 to “Dave Yost for Ohio” (OpenSecrets vendor/recipient data). 
• Dark-money splash: A $10,000 donation reached Yost in Oct. 2019 via a Borges/Generation Now conduit during the HB6 repeal fight; Yost later donated it to charity and still won’t fully explain the episode.  To his credit, he sued.
• In Sept. 2020 Yost filed a sweeping civil action against FirstEnergy/Energy Harbor et al. over HB6. 
• …And then he settled. In Aug. 2024, Yost cut a $20M deal with FirstEnergy; better than nothing, but a significant rounding error compared to the scam’s size. 

Attorney General Dave Yost wants you to think he’s the cleanup crew. He occasionally swoops in after public outrage hits a boil, launches a lawsuit here, a press conference there. But don’t confuse the show for substance. Yost took his own slices of the utility cash pie before polishing up his “tough on corruption” act.

He’s not cleaning house; he’s sweeping dirt under the rug after the check clears.

Don’t forget for a second that Reminger’s PAC slipped him cash, too. The same firm representing Ron Froh and Adamo Group with a lot to lose in the Travis Miller v Adamo Group case; the same one filing gag orders on innocent women who have been victimized by their negligence.

Bottom line on Yost: He did accept utility-adjacent money, did offload tainted funds when the scandal blew up, and did pursue cases, ending in a settlement many consider too light. Is that accountability or image management? Depends on how the water tastes in your ZIP code. 

Water as Collateral Damage

While DeWine and Yost play their good cop/bad cop routine, Ohio’s water is left to rot. Groundwater contamination, coal ash ponds leaking toxins, and entire communities quietly suffering health fallout, all while utilities hike rates and buy more politicians.

What’s a family in Adams County or along the Ohio River supposed to do? You can’t “vote with your feet” when your well is poisoned and the nearest clean tap is miles away.

The Big Picture

Here’s the ugly truth: Ohio’s government isn’t protecting its people from environmental harm. It’s managing risk for energy companies. That’s why cleanup never happens until headlines force it. That’s why accountability never sticks. And that’s why your water glass is murkier than a PAC ledger.

HB6 wasn’t just a line on a ledger; it was a signal that political will bends toward polluters, not people. Put friendly regulators in charge, rubber-stamp bailouts, and you get the predictable sequel: slower clean-up, softer oversight, and communities holding boil-advisories while utilities hold press conferences. The pattern is national; Ohio just made it obvious. 

And so it goes; the circle repeats and they protect the companies dumping coal ash and oil into Ohioan’s drinking water.

What You Can Do (Right Now)

More work needs to be done.

1. Demand full repeal/repair of every HB6 fossil remnant and real transparency on PUCO appointments.
2. Track donations to DeWine-world and statewide offices; call out utility/energy money as it lands. (Start with TransparencyUSA and OpenSecrets.) 
3. Support OCC & watchdog journalism like clutch, pressuring regulators to protect ratepayers and water, not balance sheets. 

Pulling it Together

When utilities bankroll your Governor like he’s an SEC football program, you don’t get clean water; you get excuses, sweetheart deals, and regulatory capture so blatant it could have its own office at the Statehouse.

Mike DeWine built the cash pipeline. Dave Yost plays janitor after the spill. And Ohio families? They are stuck paying the water bill and the medical bills. Ohioans didn’t elect a watchdog; they hired a utility lobbyist-in-chief. And the bill isn’t coming out of DeWine’s campaign fund; it’s showing up in your tap water.

Meanwhile, Ohio families are left playing roulette with rivers and rates. Big Energy keeps winning. Ohio’s water keeps losing. And unless we demand real accountability, the only thing getting filtered in that state will be the campaign donations.