A local group opposing hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has asked the Athens County Board of Elections for a written explanation as to why it denied a fracking ban initiative from appearing on the November ballot.
The Bill of Rights Committee, the anti-fracking group, believes that this decision is “undemocratic” and “unfair,” said Richard McGinn, organizer of the committee and associate professor emeritus of linguistics and Southeast Asian studies at Ohio University.
The board unanimously decided Aug. 15 to deny the November ballot initiative.
“The Ohio Constitution gives citizens the right to oppose (the initiative’s denial),” McGinn said. “We are taking initiative to ban fracking because it’s dangerous.”
In a letter dated Aug. 29, the committee’s lawyer demanded Board of Elections Director Debbie Quivey give a written response that fully explained the board’s decision.
“I am requesting clarification as to whether the (b)oard sustained each of the four objections filed by the objectors or whether the (b)oard overruled some of the individual objections,” Sean Kelly, attorney with Robert E. Sweeney Company, L.P.A. in Cleveland, stated in the letter. “Such a clarification … will help me advise my clients on a future course of action.”
The Bill of Rights Committee has yet to receive a response from Quivey, but she told The Post she’d be presenting the letter to the board for discussion at 10 a.m. on Sept. 18.
Though Quivey declined to comment further and explain the board’s decision, the Ohio
Revised Code apparently suggests that even if such a ban were to be passed, the state is the only authority that can regulate drilling and mining.
The code states: “The ( Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas Resource Management) has sole and exclusive authority to regulate the permitting, location, and spacing of oil and gas wells and production operations within the state, excepting only those activities regulated under federal laws for which oversight has been delegated to the environmental protection agency,” among others.
“It’s still possible (the Board of Elections) could appeal (its decision), but they have not done that,” Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said.
McGinn said the committee will continue to wait for its response, recruit more members and fight to put a fracking ban on the ballot.
“Democracy will not sit down,” he said. “It will move forward.”
kf398711@ohiou.edu
