Ohio Citizen Action

Thomas E. Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

BOARDMAN — “An April 15 story released by global mass media agency Bloomberg indicated that drillers looking for oil in the Utica Shale Play have been disappointed, leaving some to pull up stakes and sell their mineral rights. [Thomas E. Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association] said he believes that story had ‘significant flaws,’ including a mischaracterization of previous predictions. The topic of Bloomberg’s article, repeatedly picked up in recent weeks by other news agencies and business columnists, indicated that U.S. drillers that had been working to unearth projections of $500 billion of oil in the Utica Shale were instead ‘packing up.’

Stewart pointed out that state geologists previously had indicated only that there was potential, not guaranteed, mineral reserves valued at $500 billion in the Utica Shale.

‘I believe, unlike what Bloomberg said, there’s a lot more oil and gas out there, but it involves new innovation and challenges.’”

— Brenda J Linert, Warren Tribune Chronicle

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The Truth-O-Meter says Pants on Fire!

CLEVELAND — “But the reality and relevance of the number in the context of the ad is undermined considerably by the fact that it is not the result of surveying but of modeling; that fewer than half of its nearly 40,000 jobs are directly or indirectly related to drilling, and that the single largest element — almost 30 percent of the jobs total — consists of unidentified “induced” jobs.

… Finally, the IHS report says its figure of 38,830 jobs refers to total jobs supported by drilling during 2012, not to new jobs created in the year, as the ad claims.

And the words matter. The IHS report itself makes clear that there is a difference between jobs that are “created” by the industry — which, in a generous reckoning, would encompass direct and indirect jobs — and jobs that are “supported,” which would be all of the 21,020 induced jobs.

That’s an important distinction that the ad ignores, and it accounts for more than half the jobs that the ad claims.

So the association has misrepresented its own industry’s study with compounded exaggerations.”

— PolitiFact, Cleveland Plain Dealer

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The spills themselves are not poisonous, but the clay sinks into wetlands and streambeds where it can smother aquatic plants and other wildlife.

COLUMBUS — “A series of pipeline-construction spills by one company has the Ohio EPA demanding answers and environmental-advocacy groups warning that this is one more activity tied to fracking that is endangering streams and wetlands.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials call the spills ‘inadvertent returns.’ They involve a lubricant made of clay and water that sometimes gushes unexpectedly from the ground when builders drill tunnels to install natural-gas pipelines.

Ohio EPA records show that Denver-based MarkWest Energy had four spills between Sept. 17 and Feb. 9, polluting streams and wetlands in Harrison and Belmont counties. The Harrison County spills included one late last summer affecting Brushy Fork near Cadiz, and a Nov. 4 spill near Cadiz that fouled 1 1/2 miles of Boggs Fork and a nearby wetland and took more than three months to clean up.”

— Spencer Hunt, Columbus Dispatch

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YOUNGSTOWN — “As the practice unfolds, though, it will become increasingly important that ODNR remain diligent, attorneys say.

Currently, in Trumbull County, Halcon is attempting to bypass properties that already are leased, by including a provision to ‘adapt nonconforming leases,’ in their request for unit operations, Wenger said.

‘They are trying to bend and ignore existing lease properties,’ Wenger said. ‘The law is meant for unleased parcels, not leased parcels; they don’t want to amend the leases if they stand in their way — we’ll be challenging that.’

BP recently was approved by ODNR in Mecca and Johnston Townships to recover 300 percent of the well costs, rather than 200 percent. BP’s request was approved by ODNR in only two months.

‘This could very much affect the rights of landowners,’ Wenger said. ‘These laws were established so that a minority or single- property owner cannot stop development willy-nilly. But you have to make sure that there’s proper regulation, due process and fair compensation.’”

— Jamison Cocklin, Youngstown Vindicator

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ATHENS — “The Athens County Commissioners on Tuesday voted to support proposed state legislation that would ban disposal of fracking waste in injection wells.

The commissioners signed on to a letter being circulated that voices support for legislation being proposed by State Reps. Denise Driehaus and Robert Hagan and State Senator Michael Skindell. The letter is addressed to the three Democratic legislators.

WASHINGTON, DC — “But not everyone is convinced that this drilling frenzy has carried the U.S. economy. In a new research note for Capital Economics, Paul Dales argues that the oil and gas boom has so far provided only a modest economic boost since 2009.

… Now, it’s worth emphasizing that we’re still early into this era of cheap natural gas. Firms like Shell are in the process of building ethane crackers in places like Pennsylvania to take advantage of nearby shale production. That, in turn, could eventually provide a boon to other industries — plastics, say. But it may be a few years before this registers in the macro-level data.

In all, Dales concludes, it’s hard to give oil and gas more than a small bit of credit for America’s better-than-average economic performance since 2009. ‘[T]he recovery in US GDP since the recession has been driven by an improved performance across a wide range of sectors, including motor vehicle production and professional business services.’”

— Brad Plumer, Washington Post

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