Norfolk Southern plied Ohio politicians with campaign cash, extensive lobbying

Feb 20, 2023

Call to dig congress and politicians received money from NS

almost exactly a month before a Norfolk Southern train derailed and spewedhazardous materials in eastern Ohio,the company gave the maximum $10,000 to help bankroll Gov. Mike DeWine’s inaugural festivities.

A 6 On Your Side examination of state records shows this contribution, which is part of $29,000 the Virginia-based corporation has contributed to DeWine’s political funds since he first ran for governor in 2018, is merely one piece of an extensive, ongoing effort to influence statewide officials and Ohio lawmakers.

In all, the railway company has contributed about $98,000 during the past six years to Ohio statewide and legislative candidates, according to data from the secretary of state. Virtually all went to Republicans, although Norfolk Southern hedged its support for DeWine in 2018 with a $3,000 check to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray.

In addition, the company filed more than 200 state-required quarterly reports disclosing lobbying of state officials or legislators in the same period.

A total of 39 of those public disclosures showed that DeWine or another statewide officialwas the lobbyists’ target, while another 167 were aimed at state lawmakers.

Most of the disclosed attempts to influence Ohio leaders came on generic rail or transportation issues. Some efforts, however, were devoted todefeating legislation that would have established tougher safety standardsfor rail yards and train operations.

Years of killing Ohio bills designed to make railroads safer

Getting special attention from Norfolk Southern was a bipartisan measure introduced in two consecutive legislation sessions which would have required a minimum of two-person crews on freight trains – pushed by advocates as a safety measure.

While the size of the crew has not publicly emerged as a factor in the East Palestine derailment, the ardent opposition of Norfolk Southern to that provision and other proposed rail safety measures underscores the company’s strong efforts to avoid additional regulation.

In early 2021, lobbyists made their case to the office of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost against the two-person crew mandate. The bill would have required the attorney general, at the request of the Public Utilities Commission, to bring a civil action against railroads that violated the law.

The penalties would have ranged from a possible $1,000 for a first violation to as much as $10,000 for a third violation within three years of the first.

There was no indication Yost did anything, and he is now threatening to sue the railroad over the East Palestine derailment, per a letter obtained by 6 On Your Side.

Attorney General Dave Yost&… by WSYX/WTTE

In the end, however, the lobbying effort was a success. While neither measure passed, the later version got five hearings in 2021 in the House Transportation and Public Safety Committee.

Republican co-sponsor Brett Hillyer of Uhrichsville had said at the time that the bill contained “railroad safety measures that are long overdue and critical not only for industry safety, but for the communities impacted by the railroads.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/norfolk-southern-plied-ohio-politicians-with-campaign-cash-extensive-lobbying/ar-AA17IHjU

PN>>18386583 Pete Buttigieg slams Norfolk Southern amid criticism over his response to Ohio train derailment

That letter wasn’t even sternly worded, it was like maybe, if, you did anything wrong. This guy is a fag writer. He probably called them first saying I have to make a stink publicly but please don’t be offended by it. Pathetic.

21 Feb, 2023 11:48

Russia issues warning about future of Ukraine conflict

The US and its allies intend to take the military standoff global, Vladimir Putin has said

Western elites “intend” to transform the conflict in Ukraine from a regional to a global one, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Moscow perceives this as anexistential threat and will react accordingly, he said.

The goal of those in power in the US and other Western nations is to “end us once and for all,”the Russian leader stated during a keynote speech on Tuesday. They are using Ukraine as a “battering ram” against Russia and don’t care how many people will die as a result, he said.

“They intend to turn a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation. That is how we understand things and will react accordingly. Because the issue here is the existence of our state,” Putin said.

The Ukraine conflict was unleashed by the West when it supported an armed coup in Kiev in 2014, the Russian president noted. Western powers then poured resources into the new regime, even as it used the military against its own population and became increasingly nationalist and extreme.

Western elites “don’t care who they are betting on in their fight against us, their fight against Russia. They just want them to go to war,”Putin observed. Thecurrent Ukrainian government is “alien” to the peopleit governs and serves Western interests, he believes.

“Nobody among them counts the loss of human lives and tragedies, because trillions of dollars are at stake, an opportunity to keep robbing everyone under the cover of rhetoric of democracy and freedoms,” the Russian leader warned.

He said that ultimately Russia’s opponents must realize that the country cannot be defeated on the battlefield. That is why they target it in different ways, trying to undermine its unity via historical revisionism and attacks on Russian traditional values, Putin explained.

The remarks were part of the president’s address to the Federal Assembly, as both chambers of the Russian parliament are called, as well to as senior Russian officials and public figures.

https://www.rt.com/russia/571830-ukraine-global-confrontation-putin/

Little-known political fund gives DeWine donors like AEP another shot at influence

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) —

American Electric Power was just one of86 donors that “maxed out” with a $10,000 contribution to Gov. Mike DeWine’stransition to a second term.

But the Columbus-based utility is the only one of those givers still benefiting from the remnants of House Bill 6, the legislation at the center of an ongoing federal corruption trial in Cincinnati. And, for now at least, DeWine favors continuing the subsidies to AEP and others from a part of the bill still in effect.

Once candidates win the November election, Ohio law allows them to set up a transition fund to pay expenses to transition into public office – even, as was the case last year, the statewide victors were all incumbents merely returning to the same position.

DeWine also took in $10,000 checks from several other sources with obvious interests in state government, including sports betting groups regulated by the state, Intel, which has gotten millions in state tax breaks for its sprawling facility northeast of Columbus, companies that do millions of dollars' worth of business with the Ohio Department of Medicaid, and pharmacy benefit managers – controversial middlemen in the drug-supply chain that state officials have sought to rein in for years.

As with conventional campaign contributions made before the election, these checks typically arrive after the campaign asks for them. DeWine, for example, paid a professional fundraiser $9,000 to drum up the money for his transition fund.

In a little over two months, donations of more than $1.6 million poured in for the newly re-elected governor, an average of more than $22,000 per day.

The money was used to pay for an inaugural gala, events at COSI and Lower.com Field, and a highly produced ceremonial swearing-in at the Statehouse rotunda. Expenditures ranged from $155,000 for staging the events to $136,000 for food and drink at the gala to just over $600 for entertainment from Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers.

The contribution from AEP came less than a week before DeWine's inauguration.

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/little-known-political-fund-gives-governor-mike-dewine-donors-another-shot-at-influence-gov-donations-aep-intel-politics-in-ohio-government-dave-yost-frank-larose#

(Anons there are big problems in Ohio with lobbying of energy companies there in addition to railways. Oil, Gas, Electric, Nuclear)

How American Electric Power still benefits from the little-known portion of Ohio's House Bill 6 that remains in effect

Lawmakers repealed the bulk of House Bill 6 after former House Speaker Larry Householder and several others were indicted for accepting more than $60 million in bribes from FirstEnergy in exchange for supporting a $1.3 billion bailout of two nuclear power plants in northern Ohio. Householder and former Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges pleaded innocent and are currently standing trial in a Cincinnati federal courtroom on those charges, while two other original defendants pleaded guilty and will testify for the prosecution.

But GOP lawmakers who dominate the legislature kept part of the controversial measure alive, including subsidies for a pair of coal-burning power plants along the Ohio River – one about 75 miles southwest of Cincinnati in Indiana. The facilities are owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, of which AEP holds a 39% stake - by far the largest.

AEP and other members of OVEC beat back an attempt to end the subsidies in 2021. An AEP finance officer testified before a Senate committee then that payments amounted to less than 1% of customers' bills and that ending them "would increase uncertainty for AEP's customers, the employees of OVEC and state's fuel diversity."

In 2021 the electric corporation's top financial officer testified before a Senate committee, "OVEC understands the concerns this committee has about the public allegations regarding HB 6. Let me assure you, OVEC was not a party to any of the alleged conduct. OVEC does not make political contributions of any kind and did not participate in lobbying activities regarding HB 6."

What he didn't say is that while OVEC may not make campaign contributions, members such as AEP and other utilities can and do.

The Ohio consumers' counsel testified a year and-a-half ago in favor of repealing the coal plant subsidies, dubbed "merely corporate welfare without a need." The ongoing payments have "the double whammy of increasing Ohioans’ electric bills and increasing air pollution."

So far, Ohio ratepayers have been assessed about $150 million for the power plants built in the mid-1950s, per the consumers' counsel. The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association projectsthe HB 6 subsidy will cost Ohioans $1.4 billion by 2030.

DeWine, who signed HB 6 into law the day it hit his desk, supported repeal of the suspect legislation. But he merely wanted to replace it with an identical measure untainted by what federal prosecutors describe as a sweeping bribery scheme.

A DeWine spokesman now tells 6 On Your Side that the governor backs the coal-plant subsidies since it was part of the original compromise.

Certainly the "maxed" contributions to DeWine's transition fund did not guarantee favor from the governor. For instance, he has cracked down on sports betting outfits, questioning the legality of their ads and proposing to double the state tax on them in his new two-year budget plan.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Auditor Keith Faber and Treasurer Robert Sprague also set up transition accounts, but together they totaled less than $150,000. Maximum donations to those funds are capped at $2,500.

https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/little-known-political-fund-gives-governor-mike-dewine-donors-another-shot-at-influence-gov-donations-aep-intel-politics-in-ohio-government-dave-yost-frank-larose#