Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R) was arrested Tuesday on racketeering charges in connection to a $60 million bribery scheme he allegedly devised to ensure passage of a $1.5 billion ratepayer-funded bailout for two Ohio nuclear power plants and a coal plant owned by a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp. Householder’s longtime political advisor and three lobbyists, including a former Ohio GOP chair were also arrested. According to investigators, an unidentified company funneled $60 million into a 501(c)(4) entity created by Householder, which then spent millions of dollars in support of the bailout, including at least $10 million spent in an effort to stymie a petition to put the bailout to a public vote, including paying people to stop collecting signatures for the petition. At least half a million dollars went to Householder himself, who used the funds to settle legal issues, pay for his housing costs and fund his own campaign. The timing of the arrests is remarkable, as earlier this week, Commonwealth Edison, the midwest’s largest utility, admitted to bribing state lawmakers to protect its nuclear power plants and agreed to pay a $200 million fine. (Householder: AP, Utility Dive, Columbus Dispatch, Dayton Daily News, New York Times $, Bloomberg $, Reuters, WTOV9, Cincinnati Enquirer, Politico, The Hill, Wall Street Journal $; ComEd: Utility Dive, E&E $, Chicago Tribune, GreenTech Media)