Then, in 1972, led by Democratic Gov. John J. Gilligan, the General Assembly created the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which was Gilligan’s No. 1 legislative priority that year.
The Ohio EPA bill’s prime sponsor was then-state Sen. Ralph S. Regula, a Navarre Republican, later a U.S. House member who represented the Canton area from 1973 through 2008. Statehouse bipartisanship: What a concept.
When Gilligan signed the 1972 bill, a history of the Ohio EPA later recalled, “Youngstown, Cleveland and Steubenville had some of the dirtiest air in the nation. Air (pollution) alerts were common. The state’s waterways were not faring much better: A spark from a cutting torch ignited an oil slick on the Cuyahoga River. (And) most garbage in Ohio was disposed in unlined dumpsites that were only minimally regulated.”
Coal’s heyday is past, but today’s Statehouse’s oil and gas lobby is not to be trifled with. During Republican then-Gov. John Kasich’s no-nonsense, 2011-2018 administration, Kasich sought reasonable increases in the severance taxes that mineral companies pay on oil and gas, especially if it gleaned via horizontal drilling. The industry’s lobbyists beat Kasich’s request like a rug on spring-cleaning day.
Whether, because a governor has to pick his fights, or because of affinity for the oil-and-gas crowd, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration’s operating philosophy seems to be, if not exactly “Frack, Baby, Frack!” then, “get along to go along,” leasing to frackers the land under state parks, property that belongs to all Ohioans, not private landowners.
This rush-to-frack is of course enormously profitable for the gas drillers, even though they must pay (very) modest state royalties for the gas they siphon from under the parks. But the question is whether the risk of damaging unique properties that belong to all Ohioans is worth the royalties that frackers must pay.
Two General Assembly members, from Greater Cleveland and Columbus, emphatically say, “No.” Democratic Reps. Christine Cockley, of Columbus, and Tristan Rader, of Greater Cleveland’s Lakewood, are telling the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission they “oppose new permits for oil and gas development under the Egypt Valley Wildlife Area.”
The Egypt Vally tracts, 18,000-plus acres, is in Belmont (St. Clairsville) and Guernsey (Cambridge) counties, and include the Army engineers’ Piedmont Lake, managed by the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District.
Said Cockley, “Our parks and state wildlife areas are cherished by countless Ohioans, and opening these sites up to extraction and pollution is a step in the wrong direction.” Moreover, said Rade, “The practice of exploiting public lands and parks must stop.”
The two House members noted that the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission, the leasing agency, will accept until March 7 public comments on the proposed bid to exploit taxpayers’ Egypt Valley property.
If you’re OK with an environmental threat to what should be your kids’ and grand-kids’ inheritance as Ohioans, crack open another cold one and get comfy in the BarcaLounger.
But if you think tomorrow’s Ohio needn’t be as bleak as today’s, there’s this thing called “email.” Send some.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him attsuddes@gmail.com.
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