Will energy companies soon get the greenlight to frack under Ohio's state parks and wildlife areas?
A panel from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources met last week to consider several parcels of land for exploration, including parcels in Salt Fork State Park in Cambridge and two wildlife areas in Carroll and Columbiana counties.
The well-attended meeting ended with the panel voting to allow companies to bid on rights to drill in four parcels of state-owned land. Those parcels are owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation and are public rights-of-way near state routes in eastern Ohio. But the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission postponed its vote on whether to allow for fracking on parcels in Salt Fork and the two wildlife areas.
A law that passed in the lame duck session in December and signed by the Governor this year accelerates the process of drilling state lands.
Guest:
Julie Grant, Managing Editor, Reporter, "The Allegheny Front"