Allow Ohio to recall elected state officials

Petition at: http://signon.org/sign/allow-ohio-to-recall?source=mo&id=35273-4403145-_lQKoTx

Ohio citizens should have a way to remove elected officials whom they are not satisfied with. Ohio's constitution should be amended to give voters that right.

Ohio should have an amendment to our state constitution (similar to the one Wisconsin is using on Governor Scott Walker) that would allow us to remove an elected official. The principle underlying the recall of public officers has been defined as an effective speedy remedy to remove an official who is not giving satisfaction to the public and whom the electors do not want to remain in office, regardless of whether he is discharging his full duty to the best of his ability and as his conscience dictates.” 

Read more: http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/sen-kathleen-vinehout-wisconsin-s-recall-law-exists-to-assure/article_d292ea6c-1e5f-5042-b2da-fd55c97eeb2a.html#ixzz1kDOdH2So 

Anti-fracking group to submit county plan

According to a report submitted by the group on their experiences, they were hosted by the Wetzel County Action Group in their tour. Many Athens area residents have been taking the Wetzel tour, and have submitted descriptions of what they've observed as op-eds to The Athens NEWS.

"Northern Wetzel County is home to 33 Marcellus Shale gas wells and three compressor stations installed by Chesapeake (Energy) in a six-square mile area of the county since 2007," the report states. "Chesapeake has a total of 140 wells permitted in Wetzel, and many additional wells and permits exist with other companies. What was once miles of bucolic forested and agricultural West Virginia countryside is now a rural industrial petrochemical complex."

The report was provided by local resident Al Blazevicious. Other members of the group included Ann Brown, Ken Edwards, Jane Jacobs, Bruce Kuhre, Loraine McCosker, Celia Wetzel and Athens City Council member Michele Papai. Some of these individuals, including McCosker and Wetzel, have been outspoken critics of horizontal hydraulic fracturing.

"We saw numerous ridgetop drill pads and compressor stations, and spoke to several farmers who experienced significant impacts on their water, air, land, livelihoods, property values, personal health and quality of life," the group reported.

That change in landscape was a major thrust of the group's report.

"The life and viewscape in Wetzel County has changed from rolling agricultural hills, woods, streams and ponds, to an industrial landscape," they said. "The ridgetops are now filled with gas wells, storage tanks, compressor stations, huge storage ponds with slipping dams, while the trucks, noise, pollution and frack waste roll on (into southeast Ohio)."

They wrote that responsible citizens have an obligation to themselves and the community to view the impacts of the drilling technique firsthand.

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New York Fracking Advocates Say Local Bans Are ‘Kiss of Death’

New York, the third-most-populous state, may become the only one that allows municipalities to ban fracking, West said. So far, 20 towns have done so, said Karen Edelstein, a geographic information-systems consultant in Ithaca.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-17/new-york-fracking-advocates-say-local-bans-are-kiss-of-death-.html

Pennsylvania DEP fines Talisman for gas well-control incident

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection fined Talisman Energy USA Inc. $51,478 for a January 2011 gas well-control incident during hydraulic fracturing in Ward Township, Tioga County.

“Equipment failure during fracing on Jan. 17 caused about 21,000 gal of hydraulic fracturing fluid and sand to be released for about 3 hr,” DEP North-central Regional Director Nels Taber said.

Fluid discharged from the wellhead under high pressure. Vacuum trucks recovered the fluid on the well pad. No streams, wetlands, or private drinking water wells were touched by the spill.

Regulators said the incident was caused by a needle valve that had failed and could not be shut off. To regain control of the well, the hydraulic valve above the master valve was remotely closed. Fluid was allowed to flow back through the production test separator. A new pipe connector called a hammer union was also installed and closed.

Hydraulic Fracturing Letter NY City AIA Chapter sent to DEC

We understand the need to identify areas for increased sources of energy to serve the NYC metro area and the greater metropolitan region, especially if the Indian Point Nuclear Facility is closed.  However we firmly believe that New York State’s support of energy efficiency strategies is a far better way to accomplish a significant increase in the available energy supply.  Buildings in New York City use 95% of the electricity and we have the knowledge and the science to retrofit existing buildings and create new buildings that dramatically reduce energy consumption.  Drilling for natural gas does not improve energy efficiency nor does it reduce carbon emissions from buildings.  While natural gas reserves are in great supply, they do not address the issues of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to control the already devastating impacts of global warming.  Energy efficiency helps solve not only a resource problem, but a climate crisis.

 

There are many knowledgeable people in New York State who could be helpful in approaching the problem through energy efficiency initiatives.  These include the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and its Committee on the Environment, Urban Green (The New York branch of the U.S. Green Building Council) and several enlightened real estate developers. For example, witness the exceptional work done by Malkin Holding’s at the Empire State Building.

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Fracking' debate exposes weaknesses in Ohio Statehouse -- term limits and the death of home rule: Thomas Suddes

Still, Statehouse history is telling. In 2004, the General Assembly took away any right that Ohio's cities and villages had to regulate the "permitting, location and spacing" of oil and gas wells. That is, if someone wants to drill for oil and gas in your town, he or she doesn't need your OK. Someone in Columbus gets to decide.

The 2004 "pre-emption" bill's lead sponsor was then-Rep. Thomas Niehaus, a suburban Cincinnati Republican who is now the state Senate's president. Niehaus is one of the few people backing the pre-emption bill who is still in the General Assembly. And even he'll have to leave in December, thanks to Ohio's inane legislative term limits.

Consider the House's 2004 roll call on his bill. The vote, not especially partisan, was 59 in favor, 35 opposed. Of the 59 House members who voted "yes," only 11 are still in the legislature. Ten are now state senators, including Niehaus; Thomas Patton, a Strongsville Republican; Michael Skindell, a Lakewood Democrat; and James Hughes of Columbus, Tim Schaffer of Lancaster and Christopher Widener of Springfield, all Republicans.

One House "yes" has returned to the House after a term-limit hiatus: Rep. Ron Young, a Leroy Township Republican.

The House's remaining 48 "yeas" on Niehaus' 2004 bill are long gone, most due to term limits. Likewise, of the 26 state senators who voted "yes" on the Niehaus bill in 2004, only seven are still in the legislature (all now as House members).

What those numbers mean is that few people in the Ohio General Assembly today are accountable for fracking in Ohio -- or anything else. And fewer yet (except pro-fracking lobbyists) know anything about the specific issues raised in the 2004 debate. That is, when it comes to political deniability, term limits make Pontius Pilate seem like an amateur.

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After earthquakes, Ohio city questions future fracking wells

Cleveland, Ohio (Reuters) - Alarmed over a string of earthquakes linked to deep wells in nearby Youngstown, authorities in Mansfield, Ohio have threatened to block construction of two similar waste disposal wells planned within their city limits.

Ohio has over 170 active disposal wells, though only recently has it become permissable to use them for disposal of out-of-state waste from fracking, a controversial process to drive gas and oil out of underground rock.

Now, fresh questions about their safety are being raised in the wake of 11 earthquakes that struck Youngstown last year, all centered near wells used for disposal of fracking waste.

In Mansfield, city officials are reconsidering plans to allow two new 5,000 foot waste disposal wells to be built. Last spring, an Austin, Texas-based company, Preferred Fluids Management, obtained a drilling permit for the wells.

The city wants Preferred Fluids Management to pay for the testing of every tanker of fluid previously discarded in the Mansfield wells and a full geological survey of the area. Otherwise, officials said, the city will fight the drilling.

"The city of Mansfield will be the first as a whole to oppose the injection disposal wells," John Spon, the city of Mansfield's law director, told Reuters.

There is a new demand for fracking fluid disposal in Ohio, because Pennsylvania no longer allows fracking companies to treat and then dump the water used in the process. To deal with waste, disposal wells are drilled to specific geological depths, and millions of gallons of leftover fluid are injected or sandwiched into the rock.

One obstacle city officials face is a 2004 law exempting these types of wells from urban zoning rules, essentially giving Ohio Department of Natural Resources exclusive jurisdiction.

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