A natural gas well in Pennsylvania. (Photo by WCN 24/7 via Creative Commons)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN — “Current state laws often make it difficult for communities to understand what drilling companies fracking locally are doing, and to control it within their jurisdictions, says Sandy Buchanan, executive director of Ohio Citizen Action.
“In a state like Ohio, where the oil and gas industry has been systematically trying to do away” with the rights of communities to control gas drilling within their borders, it’s important to support those rights,” Buchanan said.
The NRDC and Ohio Citizen Action are both members of RE-AMP, which also publishes Midwest Energy News.
Buchanan cites two oil and gas industry-supported bills that became Ohio law in 2004 and 2010. Together the laws preempted communities from using zoning to establish restrictions on gas drilling operations, she said. In addition, in 2011 Gov. John Kasich signed into law legislation allowing drilling companies to frack for gas in Ohio state parks. And in the last session of the state legislature, lawmakers rejected a bill supported by NRDC that would have forced frackers to disclose which chemicals they’re injecting into the ground before they get a permit to drill, Henderson said.”
— Dan Ferber, Midwest Energy News
