Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO)

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) is the state agency that regulates Ohio's investor-owned electric, gas, water, and telephone utilities — setting the rates households pay. Its five commissioners are appointed by the governor, which is why the Ohio 2026 Governor Race is, quietly, a utility-regulation race. PUCO is both the body that was captured in the HB 6 scandal and the body now recovering money for the ratepayers it failed.

What it is

An appointed regulatory commission. The governor picks commissioners from a slate produced by a nominating council, for five-year terms; by law no more than three may come from one party. It approves utility rate plans and rules on cost recovery — the mechanics of every line on an electric bill.

The capture

• Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Sam Randazzo to chair PUCO in 2019 — after FirstEnergy had secretly paid Randazzo $4.3 million. Randazzo resigned in November 2020, days after an FBI search of his home, and died before trial. His tenure is the clearest case of regulatory capture on the 2026 slate.

The clawback and the grid

• November 2025: PUCO ordered FirstEnergy's Ohio utilities to pay roughly $250 million for HB 6-era violations; a settlement it approved in January 2026 directs the company to return about $275 million to customers.
• Data-center tariff (2025): PUCO approved rules making large loads (over 25 MW) pay for most of their subscribed capacity on long-term contracts — an attempt to keep the data-center buildout off household bills, now tested by the AEP/FirstEnergy Grid Growth Ohio cost-shift.

Why it matters in 2026

• Governor. Vivek Ramaswamy vs. Amy Acton decides who appoints the next commissioners — and whether the agency stays independent of the utilities it regulates.
• Legislature. The Ohio General Assembly's 2025 HB 15 stripped the "Electric Security Plan" riders utilities used to pad bills and required rate cases every three years — see Energy and Utilities in Ohio.