Democracy was denied at recent oil and gas meeting
Letter to the Editor,
On Monday, Sept. 18, about 75 Ohio citizens traveled from all over the state to attend the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission meeting. The meeting was to decide if thousands of acres of public land in Ohio including Salt Fork State Park, Wolf Run State Park, Zepernick Wildlife Area and Valley Run Wildlife Area would be open to bidding for oil and gas companies seeking to frack their acreages.
At the latest meeting, the commission was met by a very emotional crowd. People held up signs that read “deny” and “fake emails.” It is ironic that these meetings are categorized as being open to the public. They are open, but the public is not allowed to verbally comment or ask questions of the commission at any time. Even though citizens are paying for state parks through their taxes, their voices have been silenced throughout this entire process. I have attended four of the OGLMC meetings this year, and I can only describe the commission as ineffective and biased.
Some of the angst expressed by citizens in attendance was in part due to the way the commission and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has chosen to ignore “fake” email comments that were in favor of fracking the parks.
“Dozens of citizens told Jake Zuckerman that their names and addresses were used without their knowledge on public comments supporting drilling for oil and gas in Ohio’s state parks.”
ODNR Director Mary Mertz, as well as the commission chair, “defended the decision to neither independently investigate nor remove from the official record disputed, pro-fracking public comments.” Nevertheless, the attorney general has launched an investigation into the emails.
Hundreds of real Ohioans took time to submit comments urging the commission to SAVE OHIO PARKS. Many of these comments were technical with references to peer-reviewed studies on the effects of fracking on both humans and ecosystems. By contrast, other than two sets of generated form letters, there were less than a dozen comments in support of fracking our public lands.
The chair Ryan Richardson repeatedly claimed, “I think the statute is very clear about what the scope of our authority is and is not. I don’t think we have the ability to simply say no.”
But her statement is not factual. Why were nine specific criteria set for the commission to review if they did not have any recourse other than to say yes to all of the nominations? The relevant statute, ORC 155.33, says the commission can “approve or disapprove” lease nominations on the basis of the nine considerations including economic benefit, environmental impact, geological impact, impact on visitors, and public comments and objections.
Citizens, hoping for an authentic process, diligently try to educate the commission on the many reasons why our Ohio parks should not be fracked. Yet the commission, statehouse and Gov. DeWine have made it impossible for Ohio’s citizens to participate in a democratic process.
Dr. Randi Pokladnik
Tappan Lake
Uhrichsville
