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A panel votes to open up almost 900 more acres of Ohio’s park land to energy companies for fracking

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The state panel that grants permits to drill for oil and gas approved opening up more state park land for fracking. And as has been the case for more than a year, environmental activists tried to interrupt the meeting, this time with shouts and Christmas songs rewritten to include lyrics about fracking.

Environmental activists from the group Save Ohio Parks came in holiday costumes to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission meeting, singing revised Christmas carols with lyrics related to fracking.
Environmental activists from the group Save Ohio Parks came in holiday costumes to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission meeting, singing revised Christmas carols with lyrics related to fracking. [Karen Kasler | Statehouse News Bureau]
It was almost impossible to hear the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission meeting over about two dozen protestors from Save Ohio Parks, who came in holiday costumes and sang several revised Christmas carols before the meeting opened. They’d hoped written input from around 600 Ohioans – 98% of it against drilling – would lead the panel to vote not to open up parcels of 371.42 acres and 513.11 acres in Salt Fork State Park for bids from energy companies.

But the commission approved those requests. The identities of the entities requesting the opportunity to drill are shielded until permits are awarded.

The Oil and Gas Land Management Commission also awarded drilling rights to Gulfport Appalachia of Oklahoma for 30 acres in the Egypt Valley Wildlife Area in Belmont County. It’s unclear when drilling might start.

Since last spring, state law has required the commission to move forward the leasing of state lands for drilling, including fracking. A sweeping bill passed in the lame duck session in 2022 sought to speed up the process of permitting drilling on state lands by changing the language on state approval from “may” to “shall.” That bill started as a measure to limit setting limits on buying poultry chicks and turned into what’s known as a “Christmas tree bill” because of its many additions. It also declared natural gas “green energy,” though it’s mostly methane.