Letter to the Editor: Wall Street Vultures Play High Stakes Poker With Aging Ohio Nuclear Plants: Crains Cleveland Business

Repeal nuclear bailout bill

Judge Alan Koschik of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Northern District is asking important questions of FirstEnergy Solutions/Energy Harbor's Washington, D.C., lobbyists: "Bankruptcy judge halts $2.8 million payment to Akin Gump".

But I'm equally interested to find out how two Wall Street vulture fund executives, John Kianni (formerly of Cove Key Management LP), now Energy Harbor executive chairman, and Stephen Burzanian (formerly of Avenue Capital Corp.), now the company's chief strategy officer, ended up running two of the country's most outdated and potentially dangerous nuclear power plants, both located in Ohio.

Their former funds bought hundreds of millions of dollars of FirstEnergy Solutions bonds, helped steer its reorganization and became shareholders upon its emergence from bankruptcy.

Then they looted the newly reorganized company and spent $850 million buying back stock that they and their fellow vulture investors had accrued for pennies on the dollar, giving their investors windfall profits and leaving the company once again loaded with debt.

Why the Ohio Assembly would want to give $1 billion in House Bill 6 state subsidies so out-of-state gamers can play high-stakes poker with these dangerous assets begs belief. It's not like they're potato chip plants — they're nuclear reactors!

It's time for HB 6 to be repealed.

Jeff Barge
Cleveland