Ohio activist group's name is too similar to industry-backed group

COLUMBUS, Ohio—The Ohio Consumers Energy Alliance, a newly formed consumer advocacy group opposing plans to bail out two Ohio nuclear power plants, is changing its name after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from a similarly named group backed by the energy industry.

The Consumer Energy Alliance, a Houston-based group whose members include the nuclear industry’s trade association, fossil-fuel companies and manufacturing groups, said in a release Tuesday that it sent the letter after receiving “an unprecedented amount of inquiries regarding its relationship to the new organization.”

“[The] use of the CEA name has quickly resulted in confusion among the public and elected officials,” the release stated.

Ohio Citizen Action, the advocacy group that rolled out the Ohio Consumers Energy Alliance last week, is changing the alliance’s name to the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance, said Rachael Belz, executive director of Ohio Citizen Action.

Read more: https://www.cleveland.com/politics/2019/04/identity-theft-ohio-activist-groups-name-is-too-similar-to-industry-backed-group.html