State Gas Drilling Laws--Real Reform Or Smoke and Mirrors?

First, A Public Service Announcement From Service Director Thom Evans

At Tuesday night's completely uneventful council meeting, Mr. Evans reported on leaf pickup in the city and reminded the handful of residents in attendance that leaves should be left on tree lawns, not the street, for pickup.

The city service department vaccums up leave piles in neighborhoods on a rotating basis--they hit neighborhoods and streets in order and then start again once they've hit the entire city. Right now they should be returning to your neighborhood every 4-5 days, although the return will get a bit longer once the leaves start coming down more heavily.

Although residents hate the idea of hurting their lawn, by having piles of leaves sitting on their tree lawns, Mr. Evans reported that leaf piles left in the streets can block drains, cause slick and unsafe road conditions, and make it much harder for the crews and the machines to vacuum up the leaves quickly and efficiently.

Mr. Evans asks Highland Heights residents to please cooperate by piling leaves on tree lawns, not in the street.

The Competing Gas Drilling "Reform" Bills

Council, on Tuesday night, passed a resolution asking the state to impose a moratorium on issuing new residential neighborhood gas drilling permits until the state laws are reformed.

This resolution was in addition to a prior one, in which council expressed its support for a reform bill sponsored by Sen. Tim Grendell, who proposes to restore local zoning control over gas wells and eliminate "mandatory pooling," the state law that allows drilling companies to force private property owners to give up their mineral rights so they can drill in residential neighborhoods.

There was a hearing held in Columbus on Wednesday Oct 28th on a rival bill introduced by Sen. Neihaus, which is claimed to be reform but actually further enables residential drilling and loosens control and oversight over drilling companies even more than under the current law.

I had informed council and the mayor about that hearing last week.

At Tuesday's council meeting, I inquired whether an official representative of the city would be willing to attend the hearing and to personally present the resolutions passed by council to the legislative committee considering the competing drilling law reform bills. My query was met with silence.

No city official volunteered to go to Columbus to speak up for Highland Heights residents.

I attended that hearing, and spoke in opposition to the Neihaus bill.

I was not alone in attending. There were two mayors in attendance, along with Gates Mills Fire Chief Robinson, officials from five different NE Ohio communities, and residents from Broadview Heights, Concord Township, Mayfield Village, Stow, Olmstead Falls, Auburn Township, and Chesterland.

There was a phalanx of drilling company representatives standing in the back throughout the hearing---taking notes and visually reminding the legislators of their significant financial and political clout in Columbus.

An hour and a half after the hearing began, the chairman of the committee abruptly announced a two hour recess. Suddenly a morning hearing was turned into a day-long affair. I have no idea if the hope was to get some of the plain folk opposing the Neihaus bill to leave, but it sure felt like that to me. While some people did have to depart, most stayed and waited patiently for the hearing to reconvene.

To give you an idea of numbers, the committee imposed a five minute time limit on speakers. Despite that limit, the hearing went on until just after 6 pm.

It is up in the air, at this point, whether the legislators really heard or considered the plea from NE Ohio residents, to change the law to protect us from forcible drilling in the middle of our lovely, established, suburban residential neighborhoods.

Two senators, Sen. Neihaus and Sen. Stewart, who have alot of clout in Columbus, are clear pro-drilling company advocates and supporters. But there were some thoughtful questions asked by other legislators, which gave me some hope.

I looked in the mirror on Thursday morning and saw a very tired face looking back, but I knew that traveling to Columbus was very important. It was important that the legislators deciding our fates should hear, perhaps for the first time, stories told by someone other than the drilling companies.

And they heard lots, if they chose to listen, about what the drilling laws and regulations are doing to our residential neighborhoods.

It may not be much, but at least I tried.

The fourth hearing on the Neihaus bill is in Columbus on Weds. Nov 3rd. It is open to the public. Anyone can attend and speak.

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