The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
A bill that would expand fracking leases in state public lands, parks, and wildlife areas from three years to five is going to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk for his signature.
Once he receives the bill, DeWine will have 10 days to sign the bill into law or veto it.
State Reps. Dick Stein, R-Norwalk, and Patrick Brennan, D-Parma, introduced House Bill 308 last year and it originally defines nuclear energy as green energy in Ohio.
Ohio has two nuclear reactors — Davis–Besse Nuclear Power Station in Northwest Ohio and the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Northeast Ohio.
The bill passed the Ohio House this summer, with ten Democrats voting against it.
The Ohio Senate added a few amendments to the bill — including one that increases a standard lease for fracking under state parks to five years. The current law is three years.
“We need to continue to frack, and allowing the extension of that is also important,” Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, said during last week’s Senate session.
State Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, had many issues with the bill.
“This is perhaps the least popular thing that we will do in the entire General Assembly,” Smith said. “Why are we extending the lease in this amendment again without public consideration?”
The U.S. Department of Energy defines renewable energy as coming from “unlimited, naturally replenished resources, such as the sun, tides, and wind.”
“This bill would designate nuclear energy as green energy, which is kind of mystifying to me, because it’s clearly not,” Smith said. “It has so much radioactive waste, it’s clearly not clean. It’s certainly not renewable.”
H.B. 308 passed last week in the Ohio Senate with a 24-6 vote. Sen. Catherine Ingram was the only Democrat to vote for the bill.
House concurrence
The Ohio House voted 65-26 to concur with the changes made to the bill later that same day. Brennan voted against concurrence on his own bill, saying he hoped it would play out in conference committee.
“I remain steadfast in favor of nuclear expansion in the state of Ohio,” he said. “… I am not anti-fracking, but I believe our state parks are sacrosanct,” he said. “I think when we created our state parks, we created a contract with the people that we would leave our state parks alone. I’m just a purist when it comes to our state parks.”
Only three Democrats voted for concurrence — state Reps. Richard Dell’Aquila, Joe Miller, and Elgin Rogers, Jr.
State Rep. Don Jones, R-Freeport, lives where fracking takes place in eastern Ohio and said the fracking process has been refined over the years.
“You will never know where fracking has occurred,” he said. “We’re not going to damage our state parks. We’re not going to hurt our state parks.”
The Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission has selected various bidders to frack Salt Fork State Park, Valley Run Wildlife Area and Zepernick Wildlife Area. The vote on this bill comes days after OGLMC selected an Oklahoma-based company to lease about 30 acres of land in Egypt Valley in Belmont County for fracking.
“This expansion of fracking is going to industrialize our beautiful parks and transform them into places people avoid, not enjoy,” Cathy Cowan Becker, steering committee member of Save Ohio Parks, said about H.B. 308.
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a law allowing drilling companies to frack in state parks in 2011. Potential drillers need to get permission from the Oil and Gas Commission, but Kasich never appointed anyone to the committee.
A fracking amendment was added to a bill during the last lame duck two years that passed and Gov. Mike DeWine signed it into law in January 2023. The law requires the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to allow fracking for natural gas in Ohio’s public land and state parks.
“Ohio legislators have once again sold out our state parks and public lands to the oil and gas industry through an amendment to an unrelated bill during the lame duck session, with no notice or chance for public testimony,” Becker said.
