main8_k.htm
UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D. C. 20549
FORM
8-K
CURRENT
REPORT
PURSUANT
TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES
EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
Date
of Report (Date of earliest event reported) December 31, 2008
Commission
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Registrant;
State of Incorporation;
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I.R.S.
Employer
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Address;
and Telephone Number
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333-21011
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FIRSTENERGY
CORP.
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34-1843785
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(An
Ohio Corporation)
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76
South Main Street
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Akron,
OH 44308
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Telephone
(800)736-3402
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Check
the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously
satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following
provisions (see General Instruction A.2.):
[ ]
Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR
230.425)
[ ]
Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR
240.14a-12)
[ ]
Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act
(17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))
[ ]
Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act
(17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))
Item
5.02 Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors;
Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain
Officers.
On
December 31, 2008, FirstEnergy Corp. (Company) adopted amendments to all
outstanding agreements providing for the grant of benefits (Award Agreements)
under the FirstEnergy Corp. 2007 Incentive Plan (ICP). The ICP permits the award
of nonqualified stock options, incentive stock options, stock appreciation
rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units, performance shares, cash-based
awards and other stock-based awards. The Award Agreements under the ICP
constitute compensatory arrangements to certain officers of the Company
including the Chief Executive Officer and certain other members of senior
management including some of the named executive officers.
Primarily,
the Award Agreements were amended in order to obtain or preserve compliance
with, or exemption from, the requirements and final regulations of Section 409A
of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Section 409A). The amendments
to the Award Agreements do not materially affect the scope or amount of benefits
the officers are entitled to receive under their respective awards, but may
affect the time and form of payment.
These
amendments include:
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limitations
regarding the payment of deferred compensation under the Award Agreements
and provisions providing for payment of deferred compensation only upon
the events and times as permitted by Section
409A;
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limitations
regarding the change of a payment date and prohibitions against the
acceleration of any payment unless permitted by Section
409A;
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·
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definitions
for “Change in Control,” “Disability,” “Separation from Service” and other
terms which identify events that may permit a payment under the Award
Agreements that are in accord with the definition of such terms under
Section 409A;
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·
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provisions
which delay payment to a specified employee for six months from the date
of the specified employee’s separation from service except upon
death;
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provisions
regarding the timing of execution of agreements to release the Company;
and
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provisions
regarding the payment of taxes.
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The above
description of the amendments is qualified in its entirety by reference to the
form of agreement to be filed as an exhibit to FirstEnergy’s Annual Report on
the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008.
Forward-Looking Statements:
This Form 8-K includes forward-looking statements based on information currently
available to management. Such statements are subject to certain risks and
uncertainties. These statements include declarations regarding management’s
intents, beliefs and current expectations. These statements typically
contain, but are not limited to, the terms “anticipate,” “potential,” “expect,”
“believe,” “estimate” and similar words. Forward-looking statements
involve estimates, assumptions, known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be
materially different from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual
results may differ materially due to the speed and nature of increased
competition in the electric utility industry and legislative and regulatory
changes affecting how generation rates will be determined following the
expiration of existing rate plans in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the impact of the
PUCO’s regulatory process on the Ohio Companies associated with the Electric
Security Plan and Market Rate Offer filings, including any resultant mechanism
under which rates charged to retail customers may not fully recover the costs of
energy supply, or the outcome of any competitive procurement process in Ohio to
allow the Ohio Companies to provide energy supply for their customers, economic
or weather conditions affecting future sales and margins, changes in markets for
energy services, changing energy and commodity market prices and availability,
replacement power costs being higher than anticipated or inadequately hedged,
the continued ability of FirstEnergy’s regulated utilities to collect transition
and other charges or to recover increased transmission costs, maintenance costs
being higher than anticipated, other legislative and regulatory changes, revised
environmental requirements, including possible greenhouse gas emission
regulations, the potential impacts of the U.S. Court of Appeals’ July 11, 2008
decision requiring revisions to the CAIR rules and the scope of any laws, rules
or regulations that may ultimately take their place, the uncertainty of the
timing and amounts of the capital expenditures needed to, among other things,
implement the Air Quality Compliance Plan (including that such amounts could be
higher than anticipated or that certain generating units may need to be shut
down) or levels of emission reductions related to the Consent Decree resolving
the New Source Review litigation or other potential regulatory initiatives,
adverse regulatory or legal decisions and outcomes (including, but not limited
to, the revocation of necessary licenses or operating permits and oversight) by
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (including, but not limited to, the Demand for
Information issued to FENOC on May 14, 2007), the timing and outcome of various
proceedings before the PUCO (including, but not limited to the distribution rate
cases and the generation supply plan filing for the Ohio Companies and the
successful resolution of the issues remanded to the PUCO by the Ohio Supreme
Court regarding the Rate Stabilization Plan and the Rate Certainty Plan,
including the recovery of deferred fuel costs), Met-Ed’s and Penelec’s
transmission service charge filings with the PPUC, the continuing availability
of generating units and their ability to operate at or near full capacity, the
ability to comply with applicable state and federal reliability standards, the
ability to accomplish or realize anticipated benefits from strategic goals
(including employee workforce initiatives), the ability to improve electric
commodity margins and to experience growth in the distribution business, the
changing market conditions that could affect the value of assets held in
FirstEnergy’s nuclear decommissioning trusts, pension trusts and other trust
funds, and cause FirstEnergy to make additional contributions sooner, or in an
amount that is larger than currently anticipated, the ability to access the
public securities and other capital and credit markets in accordance with
FirstEnergy’s financing plan and the cost of such capital, changes in general
economic conditions affecting FirstEnergy, the state of the capital and credit
markets affecting FirstEnergy, and the risks and other factors discussed from
time to time in its SEC filings, and other similar factors. The
foregoing review of factors should not be construed as
exhaustive. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not
possible for management to predict all such factors, nor assess the impact of
any such factor on our business or the extent to which any factor, or
combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those
contained in any forward-looking statements. The registrant
expressly disclaims any current intention to update any forward-looking
statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events, or
otherwise.
SIGNATURE
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has
duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto
duly authorized.
January
7, 2009
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FIRSTENERGY CORP.
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Registrant
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Harvey
L. Wagner
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Vice
President, Controller
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and
Chief Accounting Officer
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