Group supporting HB6 repeal announces counter ads

In what it says is a response to misleading advertising, Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts announced it is releasing commercials of its own in support of the petition to end House Bill 6. House Bill 6 is the recently passed legislation that would subsidize nuclear and coal power plants with money from the public. Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts is working to gather signatures for a petition to put the law to a vote, while Ohioans For Energy Security is trying to stop voters from signing that petition. Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts spokesperson Gene Pierce said the new TV ads would start airing today, Sept. 28, in major markets and will lay out the facts behind the group's campaign. He said the ads are in response to "win-at-all-costs" tactics by supporters of House Bill 6. He said in the release that supporters of House Bill 6 have made misleading ads, intimidated petitioners with "blocker teams" and said fake petitions have been made that are designed to confuse voters. "The lies, distortions and intimidation efforts from FirstEnergy Solutions show how desperately they want to protect their billion dollar bailout from House Bill 6," Pierce said in the release. Carlo LoParo, spokesperson for Ohioans For Energy Security, said the petitions are not fake or intended to confuse. He said the group is circulating petitions to support a new law that would stop foreign entities from owning anything tied to energy generation in the state. "Anything that affects our energy grid should be owned by domestic entities," LoParo said. Ohioans For Energy Security has criticized the funding for the repeal effort, saying it is being paid for by oil and gas interests owned by foreign countries that want to decrease competition. The nuclear plants by law, he said, cannot be owned by foreign countries. "We think that that's a fair point of discussion during the repeal campaign," LoParo said. "This is just a blatant play for market share." Pierce said previously that the arguments over energy interests' funding is hypocritical. "The hypocrisy is, the very same lenders that these ads complain about are lenders that they've accepted money from before," Pierce said. According to the release sent by Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, the groups needs to file 265,744 signatures by Oct. 21 to make the November 2020 Ohio Statewide ballot. Ohioans For Energy Security had previously sent mailers to voters in Lorain County, urging people not to sign the petition with the message "Don't Give Your Personal Information to the Chinese Government." LoParo said the message was "well crafted" to get voters attention, while Pierce said the mailers were "bizarrely misleading." Lorain County Board of Elections Director Paul Adams said signing the petition won't give out any information that isn't already public record. Contact Sean McDonnell at (440) 329-7148 or smcdonnell@chroniclet.com.