Over the last few months, especially the last few weeks, we’ve seen dark money groups inundate the state with lies in order to stop the HB6 referendum.
They have gone too far
This propaganda is dangerous, suggesting that organizers like our canvassers are stealing your personal information and giving it to China.
We are pushing back
We issued a cease and desist letter to Ohioans for Energy Security regarding their ad campaign and website, calling for an end for all unlawful defamation, slander, and/or libel around actions and statements relating to Ohio ballot petitioners.
Rachael Belz, our executive director, wrote a letter to the editor, calling on Ohio politicians to stand up to the fear-mongering and lies.
We also created a video to counter the narrative our opposition promotes. Please share it with friends and family:
One of the most effective weapons against misinformation is fact-based community organizing that holds elected officials accountable for their votes — the kind of organizing we do every day at Ohio Citizen Action. Please make a contribution today to help us fight the lies and defend democracy.
Here are just a few of the many news articles against the ad campaign to stop the HB6 referendum:
Who's behind the Chinese conspiracy ads against Ohio's nuclear referendum?- Energy News Network, 9/23/2019
The video ad starts like a horror film trailer. “They” are “coming for our energy jobs. The Chinese government is quietly invading our American electric grid.”
End the damaging and precedent-setting anti-HB-6-referndum overkill – Cleveland Plain Dealer, 9/19/2019
It’s blaring in our faces: China’s Communist regime could gain control of Ohio’s electricity grid if voters repeal House Bill 6, the new state law to make Ohio electricity customers bail out the Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants along with two coal-fueled power plants (one of them in Indiana). The purported scheme is preposterous. In plain English, it’s a lie.
Alan Miller: Fellow Ohioans dish up lies to scare you away from petitions, voting – The Columbus Dispatch, 9/15/2019
Who needs Russian internet trolls when we have our own trolls right here in Ohio? I’m talking about the lie machine that has been ginned up to wild proportions by those working on behalf of FirstEnergy Solutions. All involved in the desperate effort to thwart a public vote on a $1 billion bailout of the Akron company’s nuclear power plants in northern Ohio should be ashamed of themselves.
Editorial: Don't believe the garbage put out by foes of HB 6 referendum- The Columbus Dispatch, 9/13/2019
Any Ohioan with a television or a mailbox already knows the depths to which political campaign ads will sink with scares, smears and outright lies. Still, the nasty-yet-preposterous campaign against overturning a billion-dollar nuclear plant bailout takes the cake.
Editorial: Don't believe ads opposing FirstEnergy bailout referendum- Akron Beacon Journal, 9/13/2019
How much money is at stake in Ohio lawmakers’ bailout of Akron-based FirstEnergy Solution's nuclear power plants?