“At the time, the market was just developing so the costs were higher. As the law states, we’re required to purchase these RECs if they’re available.”

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio approved passing the high costs on to FirstEnergy customers along with a 7 percent interest charge.

But Dan Sawmiller, of the Sierra Club, says that FirstEnergy had other options it could have pursued.

“Instead of just purchasing them and charging their customers for them, the company should’ve realized that these were unreasonably high and taken actions to work with the commission to find an alternative to paying that high price.”

Sawmiller says he hopes the Public Utilities Commission will take a closer look at the costs to determine if they are fair and reasonable to FirstEnergy customers.

The PUCO says it would need a formal objection to reconsider.