Updated on October 1, 2019 with some additional information about Protect Ohio Clean Energy Jobs, a new political action committee that recently designated a lobbyist for FirstEnergy Solutions as its treasurer.
Facebook ad data links lobbyists for FirstEnergy Solutions to a new group that’s instructing Ohio voters to remove their names from the petition for a referendum to undo House Bill 6, the new Ohio law that bails out the bankrupt utility at consumers’ expense.
“Information about the advertiser” provided by Facebook lists the address for Protect Ohio Clean Energy Jobs as “41 S. High St. Floor 21, Columbus, Ohio 43215, US.”
Protect Ohio Clean Energy Jobs is listed as a political action committee located at the same address in the campaign finance database maintained by the Ohio Secretary of State. The database lists only filing by the new PAC, a designation of treasurer filed on September 10, and it turns out that treasurer is also a lobbyist for FirstEnergy Solutions.
The new Facebook ads link to a website, www.saveohiocleanenergyjobs.com, which offers to help voters remove their names from the petition. A related form found online can be filled out by voters and sent to Protect Ohio Clean Energy Jobs at the same 41 S. High St. address.
The Ohio Lobbying Activist Center lists the same address for Matthew Borges and Alexander Thomas, two Roetzel Consulting Services lobbyists employed by FirstEnergy Solutions to lobby on behalf of House Bill 6. Borges is the former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, and Thomas previously worked as a special assistant for legislative affairs under former Governor John Kasich.
Facebook’s ad info also lists “15136688221” as the phone number for Protect Ohio Clean Energy Jobs.
Emails from Thomas obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute show he listed the same number for his cell phone in messages sent to members of the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance, a pro-HB 6 coalition that’s “powered by FirstEnergy Solutions.”
The website for the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance is ProtectOhioCleanEnergyJobs.org.
Carlo LoParo, the spokesperson for the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance, is also involved in Ohioans for Energy Security, the murky group behind misleading ads that claim HB 6 referendum petitioners work for the communist government in China.
“House Bill 6 increases clean energy investment and saves jobs, but out of state energy companies want it gone,” claims one of Save Ohio Clean Energy Jobs’s new Facebook ads.
“If you signed their misleading petition, click the link to remove your name and support Ohio clean energy jobs,” the ad continues.
The ad features images of solar panels, while shadowy figures representing “out of state energy companies” shake hands in front of a window with smokestacks looming in the background.
Screenshot of a Save Ohio Clean Energy Jobs ad on Facebook
House Bill 6 also extends consumer bailouts for two-coal fired operated by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, which is owned by AEP, Duke Energy, Dayton Power & Light, and other electric utilities. One of those plants is located in Indiana.
