Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush

“I think we have a big problem.”

Deborah Rogers, a member of the advisory committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, recalled saying that in a May 2010 conversation with a senior economist at the Reserve, Mine K. Yucel. “We need to take a close look at this right away,” she added.

A former stockbroker with Merrill Lynch, Ms. Rogers said she started studying well data from shale companies in October 2009 after attending a speech by the chief executive of Chesapeake, Aubrey K. McClendon. The math was not adding up, Ms. Rogers said. Her research showed that wells were petering out faster than expected.

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Doctors warn fracking pollution is endangering the health of millions

Doctors fear that the confidential chemical mix used in fracking is far more deadly than energy companies are willing to admit, which is why they are pushing back against EPA disclosure laws.

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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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Organization urging legislation to regulate gas and oil drilling

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A statewide environmental organization is urging people to lobby Oho lawmakers to change state laws regulating oil and natural gas drilling.

The Ohio Environmental Council says that municipalities have more control over liquor permits than they do over deep well injection or drilling permits. 
 
"The state legislature has the power to do almost anything they want here," said Deputy Director of the OEC Jack Shaner.  "We're calling on our state legislature. We want the shock waves from Youngstown to emanate all the way to the state house in Columbus and to get laws changed to put our air, land, and water first. To put people's property rights and to put our health and safety first."

Hundreds question Ohio experts at quake meeting

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio —

About 500 residents living near an oil and gas wastewater well that a seismologist has linked to a series of earthquakes responded Wednesday to presentations from Ohio state regulators with both boos and cheers.

In a state investigation into a series of quakes in northeast Ohio, Columbia University seismologist John Armbruster has said that the injection of thousands of gallons of brine wastewater daily into an injection well at Youngstown almost certainly caused the quakes.

http://www.uticaod.com/environment/hydrofracking/x1987742813/Hundreds-question-Ohio-experts-at-quake-meeting