Ohio panel votes to let companies bid for rights to drill underneath public land

Over audience chants of “shame” and “deny," Ohio’s Oil and Gas Land Management Commission voted Monday to let companies bid for rights to drill underneath four pieces of public land.

The parcels, owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation, are public right-of-ways beside state highways in eastern Ohio. They are not in state parks or wildlife areas.

Votes on those controversial nominations to explore underneath Salt Fork State Park, Wolf Run State Park and Zepernick Wildlife Area were delayed until the commission's next meeting.

"Nobody is in a rush," Ohio Oil and Gas Association spokesman Michael Chadsey said. "We've been at this since 2011. If it takes another week or two or however many to get all of the research done and the conversations to be had, we support that."

Environmental groups, however, want to see those nine nominations rejected.

"Our campaign was to get denials on all the nominations...," Save Ohio Parks' Roxanne Groff said. "I'm not satisfied with that. To me, it looks like a pathway to go ahead and do approvals on all the nominations."

Fracking under state parks

Ohio legalized leasing its public lands for oil and gas exploration in 2011, but the law laid dormant until Republicans in the state legislature rewrote it in December 2022.

Proponents said the changes simply clarified what those previous lawmakers meant when they legalized drilling underneath public lands: Require state officials to approve the leases if applicants met specific requirements.

"The statute makes clear that the legislature intends to open these lands," Commission Chair Ryan Richardson said. "I don’t think we have the right or authority to deny the properties because we may disagree."

More: As Ohio makes way for fracking beneath state parks, locals call for transparency

What the commission can do, in her opinion, is decide whether a proposed set of terms for leasing Ohio's mineral rights meets nine criteria including potential impacts to visitors, economic benefits to the state and environmental concerns.

For example, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources recommended no wells or other surface disruptions within 1,000 of the wildlife area, no use of park roads for business purposes and no drilling during hunting season.

Environmental groups say these terms, which the oil and gas industry pushed back upon, are nowhere near enough protection.

They also believe the new rules were a sneaky, last-minute change by Republicans to open state lands to hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking," without public comment. The law was attached to another piece of legislation during the final hours of the last General Assembly.

"Fracking will industrialize our parks, drain and pollute our lakes and rivers of millions of gallons of water for generations, destroy plant, animal, and insect environments, and emit massive amounts of greenhouse gases−including methane − that accelerate climate change," Save Ohio Parks' Randi Pokladnik said in a statement. "We don't need frackers near our parks. We do need pristine parks our citizens can enjoy for generations."

But Ohio Oil & Gas Association President Rob Brundrett said in an April interview that opponents have exaggerated the risks.

"There's this misconception that the industry is out there circling state parks and is going to destroy public lands," Brundrett said. "The industry is very highly regulated. Our folks who work for these companies live here as well. It's in our interest to do this safely."

He also promised that drilling wouldn't happen inside the state parks even though the law would allow for surface interruptions. Gov. Mike DeWine has said he won't approve surface drilling, and Brundrett said the companies he represents weren't looking to do so. Instead, they can run underground pipes from well pads hundreds, if not thousands, of feet away.

"If there’s ever drilling around Salt Fork and under Salt Fork, your experiences as a tourist, as a citizen, will not change one bit," Brundrett said. "You will still be able to enjoy the lake and the trails."

Fraudulent letters

Another one of the nine criteria the commission has to consider when deciding whether to lease a piece of public land to an oil company is public comments submitted for or against the nomination.

And opponents asked the commission to delay all voting until Attorney General Dave Yost completes an investigation into how many of the 1,100 pro-fracking emails submitted to the commission were fraudulent.

An investigation by Cleveland.com found dozens of Ohioans who said they had no idea how their names ended up on pro-fracking letters.

"These apparently fraudulent letters have no place in any decisions that would irrevocably alter our beloved state parks, wildlife areas and public lands," Save Our Parks committee member Cathy Cowan Becker said in a statement.

Richardson told reporters that the commission is cooperating with the investigation.

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio prepares to lease state parks for oil and gas exploration