The ads are ominous. A narrator says: "Now foreign entities including China are pouring into Ohio buying power plants and infiltrating our power grid."
The ads definitely get your attention when you hear the narrator say: "They took our manufacturing jobs, they shuttered our factories, now they're coming for our energy jobs."
The ads are produced by a group called Ohioans for Energy Security. It's trying to fight off a referendum by a group called Ohioans against Corporate Bailouts.
That group has until October 21 to get 266,000 signatures to overturn House Bill 6. Under the bill, from 2021 until 2027, every Ohio electricity customer would have to pay a new monthly surcharge that ranges from 85 cents for residential customers to $2,400 for large industrial plants.
That money will pay for $150 billion in subsidies. That money would go First Energy Solutions to bail out its two Ohio nuclear power plants – Davis-Besse near Toledo and Perry northeast of Cleveland.
The remaining $20 million per year will go to support six solar power projects being built in rural areas around the state.
But are the ideas telling Ohioans that China wants to control Ohio's electrical grid true? Ohio State political scientist Paul Beck says no.
"They are not just based on fact, the Chinese are not major investors here. China is not going to take over our energy," he said.
The ads speak to the battle to overturn House Bill 6 which passed in July.
A spokesperson for Ohioans for Energy Security says the ads speak to a real concern.
"This has everything to do with foreign interests coming into Ohio trying to monopolize our energy production. We think it's a fair point of discussion to emphasize that the organizations that are trying to shut down these power plants are trying to kill Ohio jobs " Carlo Loparo said.
The truth is China does have financial interests in Ohio energy, but so do many foreign countries like Australia, Korea, Canada, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
In fact, when ranked by total foreign investment China doesn't make the top five, according to the Development Services Agency of Ohio. The top six are Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and France.
What the TV ads don't tell you is that under federal law, foreign countries are forbidden from owning a strategic energy interest.
Gene Pierce represents Ohioans Against Corporate bailouts.
"These ads are simply a smokescreen to distract Ohio voters that this is a bailout for two nuclear power plants on Lake Erie and two coal-fired power plants one of each is not even in Ohio," he said.
Ohioans for Energy Security say the natural gas companies, who also have ties to Chinese investments, want a monopoly on energy in the state.
"We're not trying to give a monopoly to anybody we don't want anybody to have a monopoly on the electric market place," says Pierce.