I know many citizens of Ohio are shocked by the recent revelation based on a public records request that a state-appointed regulatory agency is actually promoting drilling, and working to “convince” the public that it is safe. But I’m not.
Call it “lessons learned on the front lines.” Based on personal experience with drilling in my hometown, I was not surprised when I read this information on the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s recently exposed, 10-page memo listing allies, threats, and strategies to convince us that drilling in state parks was a good idea. I was not surprised to read notes that revealed the governor’s office, Halliburton, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, local chambers of commerce and media outlets like the Youngstown Vindicator are “allies” and environmental groups are considered “threats.”
With 90 wells in a 13-square-mile residential community, residents in my hometown of Broadview Heights learned several years ago that the ODNR was not on our side. We learned that our local officials had their authority stripped from them by a legislature that was bought and paid for with industry lobby money, according to a Common Cause report. We learned that our local safety officials (fire and police) were not notified as to when a well would be fracked or what chemicals would be used. We learned that citizens and even the city, none of whom wanted to sign a lease and were forcibly “pooled” into a drilling unit against their will and wanted to appeal, had to do so before an ODNR panel that was stacked in favor of the industry. So no, this revelation about our state regulatory agency did not have the same impact on me as it has had on others.
Read the rest here.