Two summers ago, the powerful speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and four of his political associates were arrested in a high-profile bribery scandal. The aftershocks are still being felt in Maryland …The House speaker, and the four operatives were charged in a federal criminal complaint of accepting $61 million in bribes from a major energy company, FirstEnergy Corp., in order to pass legislation that provided a $1.5 billion taxpayer-funded bailout for the company’s nuclear power plants…FirstEnergy is the parent company of Potomac Edison, the electric utility that serves more than a quarter million customers in Western Maryland.

David S. Lapp, who heads the Maryland Office of Office of People’s Counsel said, “We are concerned that the current arrangement has led to Maryland customers paying for costs that have nothing to do with the service provided to them, and it may continue to do so absent changes necessary to protect Maryland consumer.” Source: See the full story by Josh Kurtz at Maryland Matters.