Zack Malitz is an online organizer for waterdefense.org.

Zack Malitz is an online organizer for waterdefense.org – Governor Kasich promised the people of Ohio a comprehensive chemical disclosure bill that protects the health, safety and property of Ohio citizens. Instead, the bill that the governor helped maneuver through the Senate last week is chock full of loopholes large enough to drive a tanker filled with frack fluid through.

Senate Bill 315 (SB 315) does technically require fracking companies to disclose many of the chemicals they use to drill wells to the Ohio government. But the bill also includes a ‘trade secrets’ loophole allowing drilling companies to assert that their chemical cocktails are trade secrets. The Ohio government is barred from disclosing chemicals designated as trade secrets to the public.

Ohio citizens have no way of contesting whether a company’s frack fluid formula is really a trade secret. As a result, the Senate’s bill gives the fracking industry total freedom to decide which chemicals to disclose to the public.

The law even gets between patients and their doctors. The bill empowers doctors to obtain access to chemical disclosure records in the case of a medical emergency – say, if a gas worker is poisoned by frack fluid. But doctors who learn what’s in frack fluid aren’t allowed to tell anyone, including their patients.

In cases where drilling companies do decide to disclose frack chemicals, they aren’t required to disclose them until after they’ve already completed drilling, which prevents concerned landowners from ordering baseline water testing prior to drilling. Baseline water testing is the first line of defense against water contamination because it establishes a firm foundation for a lawsuit if gas drilling poisons an aquifer or well. Without it, there’s nothing to stop the gas industry from asserting that water contamination is naturally occurring.

If SB 315 becomes law it will guarantee that fracking in Ohio remains a lawless, Wild West-style operation that endangers the lives of people across the state. That’s why it’s so important to gather in Columbus June 14-17, pack the statehouse, and show Ohio’s lawmakers what real energy reform looks like.

Read more about SB 315: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/05/gov_john_kasichs_proposed_frac.html

A new study of tax rates shows that Gov. Kasich’s proposed tax on gas wells will leave Ohio with the lowest taxation rate of any major shale state in the country. Under the law, Ohioans will be receiving less, while giving away more of their rights to the gas industry, all for the blessing of welcoming a toxic industry into the state.

The fracking industry takes a heavy toll on taxpayers. Whether from road damage caused by dramatically increased truck traffic, public health risks from fracking chemicals, or dealing with the aftermath of climate change fueled weather disasters – the industry imposes substantial costs on Ohioans. The Governor’s meager tax will cover only a small portion of these costs, potentially making fracking revenue negative for the state overall.

Despite this, the industry has raised objections to even this small tax. Further giveaways are unacceptable – If covering the costs of fracking makes it financially infeasible, that is perhaps the strongest argument for ending the practice entirely.

Read more about the study here: http://www.ohio.com/blogs/drilling/ohio-utica-shale-1.291290/new-study-says-ohio-tax-rates-would-still-be-lowest-1.307447

A report from the Wyoming government has identified the prime causes of a massive fracking well blowout in the Eastern part of the state.

The report cites human error and mechanical failure as the cause for the blowout which affected 52 acres of land, and released 2 million cubic feet of gas into the air – becoming smog and asthma causing compounds – and untold amounts of toxic fracking chemicals over 3 days.

With mechanical and human error at the root cause of this blowout, it is only a matter of time until a similar or larger accident occurs in Ohio. The failure of the ODNR and Ohio EPA to effectively monitor or regulate the gas industry means that we can expect accidents of this size and larger in Ohio. Considering that Eastern Ohio atop the Utica shale is more densely populated than Montana, what was an expensive but injury-free accident could turn into an outright disaster under other circumstances.

Gov. Kasich will be meeting with Aubery McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake, the company that owned the well, next week in Columbus.

Click here to read more about the accident.

Zack Malitz is an online organizer for WaterDefense.org. – With the endless parade of nightmarish news reports about earthquakes, radioactive wastewater, flammable tap water, carcinogenic air emissions, and planet-melting methane emissions, it’s easy to forget that the corporations responsible for fracking America have their feet firmly planted in the world of speculative finance. Reuters’ recent series about Aubrey McClendon’s criminal misconduct as Chesapeake Energy’s CEO is a stark reminder that even people who live far from any fracking sites stand to lose big as this rapacious industry digs its claws into our country.

As it turns out, McClendon isn’t just the self-proclaimed ‘biggest fracker in the world’ – he’s also a crook. A couple of weeks ago, Reuters revealed that McClendon had used $1.1 billion in personal loans to finance his 2.5% stake in Chesapeake’s drilling operations. For collateral, he used his stake in those very same wells and used a shell corporation to shield himself from responsibility for the loans.

If Chesapeake makes a killing, McClendon gets rich. If Chesapeake goes belly up, McClendon walks away unscathed and his investors are left holding the bag.

Then, yesterday, Reuters dropped another bombshell: between 2004 and 2008, McClendon and Chesapeake co-founder Tom Ward ran a secret $200 million energy commodities hedge fund out of the Chesapeake offices. There’s no need to beat around the bush, McClendon and Ward were engaged in insider trading, and they were brazen enough to do it out of the Chesapeake Energy offices. McClendon and the Chesapeake board insist that Aubrey never used the insider knowledge he gained as Chesapeake’s CEO to make investment decisions.

Sure they didn’t.

The scandal at Chesapeake is more than the story of a few bad apples. McClendon’s secret financial dealings helps to explain why Chesapeake Energy, which has a $10 billion revenue shortfall and no plan to recover, is on the brink of collapse. McClendon pays 2.5% of the cost of each well that Chesapeake drills, a fact that Chesapeake’s board claims aligns his interests with the company’s. However, Chesapeake is as much a land speculation company as it is an oil and gas company. It debt-finances huge land grabs in hopes of finding gas, then pays to drill on gas-rich land. Chesapeake eats the bill for every acre of land it leases and explores, whether it drills a productive well or not; McClendon only pays for the wells Chesapeake drills.

Not only is McClendon off the hook for most of the costs of the gas revenue he collects, but he actually has a financial incentive to drive Chesapeake towards ever-riskier, more expensive land speculation. The more land Chesapeake buys, the more productive wells it drills, the more McClendon makes. The costs of land speculation are passed on to the investors and McClendon goes to the bank.

Chesapeake’s investors are not just faceless corporations and billionaire fat cats, many of them are ordinary people who are trying to retire or send their kids to college. The bulk of McClendon’s off-book loans, for example, came from EIG, an energy investment firm that raised money from state pension funds that included Alaska, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas, along with other large institutional investors like MetLife and a Teamsters pension plan. Other states, including Ohio, own Chesapeake stock, either directly or through an investment fund.

When Chesapeake goes under, it will be ordinary folks on Main Street who are left holding the bag. McClendon made a half-hearted apology yesterday, but that doesn’t pay back Ohio’s pension fund or remove heavy metals from our water. It’s the same story we’ve heard over and over again, from Enron to Worldcom to Wall Street bailouts. And it’s another good reason to join us in Columbus next month for the biggest anti-fracking mobilization this country has ever seen.

This is an image from Charleston Fall Nature Preserve in Tipp City, Miami County Ohio, where a public park has been given over to an international oil corporation with a deadly safety record. As fracking comes to Ohio, we can expect to see more and more signs like this popping up in parks around the state. If you think public parks should be for people, not BP, sign up to join us in Columbus, June 17th.

The fracking industry is fanning out across the state, buying up leases and applying for more permits to drill. But everywhere they go, citizens and grassroots groups are mobilizing to stop them.

In May, I’ll be leading strategy sessions in communities resisting fracking across the state to help build and strengthenthe statewide movement against fracking in Ohio. 

These sessions will include discussions on the impacts of fracking in our state, training on how to design strategic actions that move local campaigns forward, and we’ll talk more about our plans for the largest action against fracking in our country’s history to take place in Columbus this June 17th

These strategy sessions will be great opportunities for us to come together as a movement and gain new action organizing skills in the fight to stop fracking in Ohio. 

Here is the schedule of the strategy sessions in May:

May 12th—Cincinnati, OH  (2-5pm)

May 13th—Athens, OH  (2-5pm)

May 14th—Youngstown, OH  (6-9pm)

May 15th—Canton, OH  (6-9pm)

May 16th—Ashtabula, OH  (6-9pm)

May 17th—Cleveland, OH  (6-9pm)

May 18th—Mansfield, OH  (6-9pm)

May 19th—Oberlin, OH  (2-5pm)

May 20th—Columbus, OH  (2-5pm)

Sign up here for the session nearest to you, and we’ll send you updates on pertinent details such as specific venue locations, directions, parking, agenda, and more.

I hope to see you next month, and in action this Summer,

–Danny

Father Neil Pezzulo of Glenmary Home Missioners wrote this to explain why he will be a part of the action in June – to join him and thousands of others, click here to sign up.

Last July I moved to Cincinnati, Ohio after serving for twelve years as a Pastor in rural Arkansas. It was in Arkansas that I first heard and read about Hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Initially, this was portrayed as the latest and greatest thing to happen in gas drilling since gas drilling began. The media portrayed this as safe, inexpensive and even the more optimistic reports would portray fracking as a sure path to energy independence.  This was one of those rare a special situations where everybody “wins” and there is absolutely no downside.

After taking a longer look at how this works I quickly found out that the entire enterprise is a lie. A lie perpetuated by the gas companies who are only interested in making a profit for their shareholders, regardless of any consequences to people or the environment..

Hydraulic fracturing is a lie and no matter how many time a lie is told it is still a lie. The truth about fracking is this: There is undeniable evidence that it poisons drinking water wells. The chemicals used in fracking; hydrochloric acid, diesel fuel components, and formaldehyde, to name a few, are highly toxic and have serious short and long term health effects on both humans and livestock.

As a person of faith I cannot sit back and not speak up about this horrible injustice happening in the rural and often poorer parts of our county. Often an area rich in natural resources suffers because the resources are controlled by outside interests. These outsiders (often corporations) have no vested interest in the local area, the people or the common good. The economy in the rural United States is dependent on the environment and if the environment is destroyed in such an immoral manner the economy will ultimately cease to exist.

However, as a person of faith I always remember that we are created in the image and likeness of God.  If God created the world and our environment and then declared it not only good, but very good, we as people of faith, have an obligation to care for and be good stewards of this creation.

Fracking is not without consequences. The people I know; my friends, my neighbors and parishioners who have allowed fracking on their farms have not received the economic gains they were promised. They often suffer health problems, they have no drinkable water and their farms and ranches are not productive. The land, along with the contaminated water cannot support livestock.

Never once were these people told about the chemicals that would be used. Never once were they told that these chemicals could and do cause many health issues in both humans and livestock.

The evidence is undeniable that fracking poisons drinking water wells. Unknown chemicals in unknown amounts are used, along with large amounts of water (4-7 million gallons) are indiscriminately discarded and left to leak into and destroy drinking water, rivers and streams.

I cannot in good conscience sit back and not speak up about the destruction that is happening to our environment. God created the world gave man/woman dominion over it which includes and demands that we are stewards of this creation. After the world was created God not only declared it GOOD, it was declared: VERY GOOD.

It is also essential to understand the environment is not simply for us today, it is part of the inheritance we are leaving for our children. A correct understanding of the environment prevents the utilitarian reduction of nature to a mere object to be manipulated and exploited. At the same time, we must not absolutize nature and place it above the dignity of the human person. There must be some common ground.

We are created in the image and likeness of God and that calls us and invites us into a relationship. As with every relationship we cannot be passive observers, we are called by God, invited by Jesus Christ into a reality that makes us one.

I speak in terms of relationships not because I am some sort of expert, but because I am involved in many different relationships. I am involved in relationships because I am part of the human family, which is a qualification I cannot take credit for, I was born and baptized into it.

However, each human person has certain rights and privileges, which include clean air and water. Faithful people must concern themselves with the common good. This is where we discern what is best for everyone, our homes and our families. Each of us is called to be an active participant in the decisions that directly affect our lives. (As a Roman Catholic I would call this the Principle of Subsidiarity).

If I was able to tell the Governor anything it would be:

Fundamentally, we have a right to a safe and healthy natural environment and anything that so openly and blatantly destroys our world is inherently bad. To allow fracking to continue is both unconscionable and immoral. It violates our sensibilities and our common good. It openly destroys the environment and hurts people, mostly the poor. Simply put:  It is bad public policy. As the state laws are written it also prohibits any meaningful participation by the local community as to whether this is what they want for their community.  This is not about Ohio 2012; I am concerned with the Ohio we are leaving for the next generation. This is about Ohio 2022, 2032, 2042 and beyond.

Dressed as citizen referees, activists “blow the whistle” on gas industry’s influence over Ohio legislators and repression of the public’s voice on a critical issue for Ohioans.

Columbus, OH- Frustrated after several months of deliberate stonewalling of six bills to slow or halt fracking and deep waste injection, students, farmers, small business owners, and community members ensured their presence was felt as the bills were given their first ever introductory hearing at the Ohio Statehouse yesterday. Activists believe the delay on hearings of these bills is directly linked with the $2.8 million the Gas Industry has poured into the Ohio Legislature, including $213,000 in campaign contributions allotted to Governor Kasich. Hearing rumors that the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee Chair had no intention of allowing further hearings or opportunities for public comment, activists–many dressed in referee jerseys–packed the hearing room to call foul on the the gas industry’s corruption of the legislative process.

“I came here today to hold our representatives accountable to the people they’re supposed to represent. A majority of Ohioans want to see a halt to fracking until it can be proven to be safe. The frackers have a lot of money, but we have truth and people power on our side. I’m hoping that will prevail today” said local small business owner Jennie Scheinbach.

Fracking is quickly becoming a top tier issue for Ohioans due to growing concern over the local environmental and health impacts. Two hundred marched against the industry’s first Ohio conference in Youngstown last November. Over three hundred rallied on the steps of the Statehouse in January calling for a halt to fracking and waste injection throughout the state. Activists have even been arrested in recent months for disrupting industry operations in efforts to protect impacted communities.

In what activists deemed to be an effort to quell resistance yesterday, the Ohio House pushed back the hearings of the six bills for hours until many activists could no longer stay. Although originally notified the bills would receive a first hearing between 3pm and 5pm, hearing attendees were informed only at 4pm that the bills would not be heard until 7pm.

“As a student at Ohio State, I felt called to participate in this action.  Just as the administration at Ohio State isn’t honoring the voices of students in their decision to frack on university land, our representatives aren’t honoring the voices of distressed citizens across Ohio. They demonstrated their preference for the gas industry today in further delaying the hearing on bills that would slow or put a halt to toxic fracking operations in our state” said OSU junior, Adrian Jusdanis.

Undeterred by the further delay, about a dozen remained at the Statehouse ensuring the voices of concerned Ohioans were represented. The growing collective power brought by students, farmers, and community members will be showcased this summer in a mobilization called Don’t Frack Ohio. A coalition of Ohio grassroots groups, environmental and progressive organizations, national movement leaders, and concerned citizens are calling for the largest mobilization against fracking in the country’s history to take place in Columbus this June 14-17. Details of the June mobilization against fracking can be viewed at www.dontfrackoh.org.