Ohio has banned oil and gas drilling in Lake Erie!

Gov. John Kasich issued an executive order yesterday banning oil and gas drilling in Lake Erie, doubling a protection to Ohio’s Great Lake already provided by Congress.

Kasich signed the order in Port Clinton, where he attended the Fish Ohio Day luncheon and earlier in the day cast a line in the water with anglers. His order prohibits the Department of Natural Resources from “issuing any permit, license or lease allowing” drilling in or under Lake Erie.

The “in or under” distinction is important, Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said, to prevent drilling that starts on the shore but continues under the lake bed. There is already a federal law prohibiting drilling in all the Great Lakes.

Nichols said the executive order Kasich issued was similar to the one signed by then-Gov. Bob Taft years ago, an order that was not renewed when Taft left office in early 2007.

The Republican Kasich received immediate — if brief — praise from across the aisle for his lake-drilling ban. Before the governor had even signed the order yesterday afternoon, Democratic state Rep. Nickie J. Antonio of Lakewood said in a statement, “While I applaud Gov. Kasich for issuing this executive order which bans drilling in Lake Erie, Ohio needs a long-term solution."

Antonio then urged passage of a bill she introduced last year to ban drilling in the lake.

The Ohio Environmental Council said Kasich’s order was legally significant because there is no guarantee that the federal ban would remain in place, given the country’s political climate. Julian Boggs, of Environment Ohio, also praised Kasich in a statement but then called for a moratorium on “ fracking” throughout Ohio — a proposal Kasich has routinely dismissed.

Kasich was joined on the fishing portion of his Lake Erie visit — which included 19 chartered boats — by former Gov. and U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich. Kasich’s office said the state has an $800 million sport-fishing industry.

Last month, Kasich signed House Bill 473, designed to bring Ohio into compliance with the 2005 Great Lakes Compact that allows companies and farms to withdraw 2.5 million gallons of water per day, averaged over 90days, without a permit.

Kasich vetoed a Great Lakes bill a year ago that would have allowed 5 million gallons to be withdrawn from Lake Erie without a permit.