An important message / action from Ohio Citizen Action. Please consider

An important message / action from Ohio Citizen Action. Please consider
writing a quick note to your Legislators.

Governor Kasich's new idea: Leave Ohio wide-open for fracking
Ohio Governor John Kasich's energy plan promotes new, risky forms of gas and
oil drilling. To advance this energy plan, Kasich has written bills to leave
Ohio's health and safety regulations wide open. Governor Kasich wants the
bills passed by June 30, so legislators can leave Columbus to run for
reelection.
Kasich's bill S.B. 315 would make it easier for oil and gas drillers from
Texas and Oklahoma to use the notorious practice of "fracking," a
combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, in our state.
Fracking involves high-pressure injection of toxic chemicals underground to
get oil and gas out of the rock.  No one knows the long term effects of this
new form of drilling.

The right to know

People living near a fracking well have the right to know how much of which
chemicals the drillers are using. That's the only way they'll know if there
is a danger of contaminating the drinking water supply.

We are denied our right to know in the current version of S.B 315. As it is,
oil and gas drillers would only have to tell the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources, not citizens, the chemical class of the chemicals they're using,
which could be one of hundreds of chemicals in that class.

Drillers could wait up to 60 days after the well is completed to do that.
Citizens need to know what chemicals are used in the process before a well
is drilled so that drillers can be held responsible for contamination
instead of acting like it wasn't their fault.
Emergency responders, like firefighters, wouldn't be told exactly what
chemicals are onsite until they are literally on their way to an emergency.
Firefighters need to know what chemicals are used at a site before they get
there, because some require special measures to clean up. Fracking fluid is
known to include benzene, formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, lead, and diesel. We
need to know the rest of the chemicals too.
The right to say "no"
In 2004, the Ohio legislature gave "sole and exclusive authority of all
aspects of oil and gas drilling and production" to the Department. This
means that local municipalities don't get to decide if and how drilling
happens in their communities.

Then, in 2010, the legislature authorized "mandatory pooling," in which
landowners could be forced to let drillers use their land even if they
objected to it. The law doesn't specify a limit on how much land is needed
for a driller to request a mandatory pooling order, so it's up to the chief
of the Division of Mineral Resources Management, a part of the Department of
Natural Resources, to decide at their discretion how much land can be taken
without permission.

Communities should have "home rule" that allows us to prevent drilling in
our communities if we don't want it.  S.B. 315 currently makes no mention of
restoring home-rule.

Please write your local legislators and Senate President Thomas Niehaus:
You can find who your local legislators are at
http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/

Please take a minute to write a letter to your local legislators and Senate
President Thomas Niehaus. Tell them Kasich's plan is too reckless:

* Ohio should have a right-to-know law so that the drilling companies have
to tell the public what chemicals they are using in fracking, and in what
amounts
* Local communities should have the right to say "no," the right to decide
if and how any drilling takes place in their neighborhoods.
Your local Senator is ______________1 Capitol Square, Columbus, OH
43215

Your local Representative is _______________ 77 South High Street  Columbus,
OH 43215

Senate President Niehaus' address is 1 Capitol Square, 2nd Floor, Columbus,
OH 43215

Questions? Contact Nathan Rutz 614 W Superior Ave # 1200, Cleveland, OH
44113                                  nrutz@ohiocitizen.org    216-861-5200