DEAR EDITOR:

In November you elected me to be a new voice for the Valley in Columbus. On countless issues, I work to make sure people of the Valley are forgotten no longer.

Bipartisan legislators and I voted to remove ridiculous green-energy subsidies from electric bills, saving $3.68 per month. These green mandates took money from pockets to prop up an industry that despite massive investment, accounts for less than 10 percent of Ohio’s electricity generation. Regardless of the “Green New Deal” narrative you hear from coastal liberals, wind and solar electric generation simply does not create enough power to be sources of Ohio’s zero carbon emission electricity generation.

In passing Ohio House Bill 6, we replaced green energy subsidy with a smaller fee to help stabilize Ohio’s two nuclear power plants that employ thousands of Ohioans and generate 15 percent of Ohio’s electricity and are responsible for 80 percent of Ohio’s zero-carbon electricity. We passed HB 6 to remove high subsidies for inconsequential and ill-performing green energy industry.

Now, out-of-state interests want to remove your voice in the Ohio House. They are spending millions in deceptive messaging to overturn HB 6. A powerful duo of leftist green energy interests and powerful oil and natural gas groups have teamed up to kill nuclear power in Ohio.

Their reasoning: Oil and natural gas interests are fine giving billions to green energy companies because they know green energy produces peanuts overall. Gas interests want a bigger market share. They know if nuclear dies, that 15 percent share would be replaced by natural gas.

This is about energy monopoly.

Another concern is coziness between several large developers in the oil and natural gas industries and banks owned by the Chinese government. We cannot allow the Chinese to have leverage over our energy infrastructure.

Soon, you will be approached to sign a petition to overturn House Bill 6. They will lie and pressure you for your name, your address and your signature.

If you sign that petition, you are signing away $177 a year in personal energy costs. You are signing to kill over 4,300 Ohio jobs. You are signing up to fund the green new deal and give oil and gas tycoons a near monopoly of our energy grid. You are opening the door to our power grid to the Chinese.

Do not sign their petition. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders do not want what is best for the Valley. You elected me to have your back and I always will — especially when it comes to protecting our energy freedom.

DON MANNING

State representative

New Middletown