Exposed: State Regulator’s Secret Plan To Promote Fracking

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the agency assigned to regulate oil-and-gas drilling in Ohio, developed a wide-ranging public-relations campaign in August 2012 to sell Ohioans on fracking in some state parks and forests. It was never officially implemented.

The 10-page memo recognized that the public-relations initiative “could blur public perception of ODNR’s regulatory role in oil and gas,” which would require “precise messaging and coordination” to counteract.

The memo also warned about the need to overcome “zealous resistance by environmental-activist opponents who are skilled propagandists.” Opponents of hydraulic fracturing would “attempt to create public panic” about possible health risks, brand the policies of Gov. John Kasich as “ dangerous and radical,” and “attempt to legally and physically disrupt or halt the drilling projects, including staging dangerous protests on state lands.” The latter would necessitate “ sustained legal countermeasures and crisis readiness” by the state.

At the same time, fracking interests — such as Halliburton and other “supporters/participants of economic oil & gas development in Ohio” — would be enlisted to “minimize public concern” about the drilling and convince the public of its benefits, including millions of dollars for park improvements.

The plan offered that the entire effort would be led by ODNR and coordinated with the governor’s office. It proposed that JobsOhio, the state’s privatized economic-development agency, would play a key role in selling the job-creation angle.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said last night that the governor’s office had never seen the plan, and he referred questions about it to ODNR. Mark Bruce, public-information officer for ODNR, said he isn’t sure why the plan never got beyond the talking stage. It was written by a special-projects officer “for internal discussion and deliberations.”

“I’ve been here since March, and I didn’t even know the plan existed,” he added.

Brian Rothenberg, head of the liberal nonprofit group ProgressOhio, said that although the plan might never have gotten a formal OK, it seems to have influenced ODNR’s actions.

“This is a PR campaign that appears to have the regulator working with those they regulate to silence the voices of those who may have legitimate policy concerns about this. And that’s not the American way,” Rothenberg said of the memo, which was never officially implemented.

“In 28 years in Columbus, I’ve never seen a document from a state agency that has a hit list of people to message against, and I’ve never seen a document so open about working with the regulated industries from the regulator.”

Although the memo anticipated drilling on public lands as soon as the fall of 2012 — mentioning Barkcamp State Park in Belmont County, Wolf Run State Park in Noble County and Sunfish Creek State Forest in Monroe County — no drilling has occurred on any state-park or state-forest land, Bruce said.

Under a state law passed in 2011 by the GOP-dominated legislature and signed by Kasich, potential drillers would first have to get permission from a new state commission that currently has no members because the governor hasn’t appointed any.

The back story to all of this is that Rothenberg planned to divulge the memo during a news conference on Monday, and a pair of state legislators had slated a follow-up news conference for Tuesday to rebuke the Kasich administration.

The two legislators — Reps. Robert F. Hagan, D-Youngstown, and Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood — were named in the 10-page memo as opponents of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. That process is being used to explore the Utica-shale layer. It involves drilling down thousands of feet, then horizontally, followed by injecting millions of gallons of water, chemicals and sand to fracture the rock to release oil and gas.

After The Dispatch asked the governor’s office yesterday about the previously unreleased memo, ODNR released it late in the afternoon.

drowland@dispatch.com