Two bad bills would speed up fracking of Ohio parks, squash renewable energy

By Cathy Cowan Becker

The Ohio legislature has a long history of kowtowing to oil and gas interests — and no pair of bills demonstrates this more thoroughly than the proposed Ohio Senate Bill 219 and Ohio Senate Bill 294. 

Originating in the Senate Energy Committee, whose chair has a past career in the fracking industry, S.B. 219 would speed up the process to frack Ohio state parks and public lands, while SB 294 would further boost oil, gas, and nuclear at the expense of solar and wind energy.

Ohio Senate Bill 219

Sponsored by state Sen. Al Landis, R-Dover, with a long list of Republican co-sponsors, Ohio Senate Bill 219 is framed as an overhaul of the law governing oil and gas wells.

In reality, it is 87 pages of favors for the oil and gas industry — starting with speeding up fracking of Ohio’s parks and wildlife areas. 

If passed, S.B. 219 would:

• Give the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission only 90 days to decide on a nomination to frack public lands; currently they have 180 days. 
• Require the commission to put approved nominations out for bid immediately; currently they do that the next calendar quarter.
• Require the commission to select the “highest and best bid” within 60 days; currently there is no deadline. 
• Require the state agency that manages the land to execute a lease within 30 days; currently there is no time limit. These leases are more complex than a standard lease due to safeguards that attempt to protect our parks and wildlife areas. 

Ohio Senate Bill 219 is also full of provisions that legislators tried to stuff into the state budget last year, but which Gov. DeWine vetoed last June.

These include:

• Prohibiting the Ohio Department of Natural Resources from charging an oil and gas company more than the costs specifically outlined in the lease. Potentially the state could not fine companies that do not follow the rules or make companies pay to clean up after a spill, leak, or accident.
• Giving an oil and gas company the option to extend a lease to frack public land for five additional years instead of three years under existing law.
• Allowing an oil and gas company “surface use” of state land — meaning they could frack IN our state parks and public lands. Currently Gov. DeWine set a rule of “no surface use,” meaning frack wells must be located outside state parks and wildlife areas..
• Giving an oil and gas company that has a lease to frack public lands up to 60 days to pay any advance royalties or bonuses, instead of 10 days under existing law.
• Suspending the time limit on oil and gas leases to frack public land if the land has to go through a federal approval process. Such a process applies to Zepernick and Leesville wildlife areas. Currently these processes are counted against lease time limits.

As if all that is not enough, S.B. 219 would also:

• Curtail the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ authority to deny requests for expedited review of permit applications. If an oil and gas company requests expedited review, the department would have to grant that for up to 10 permits per year.
• Require the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to prioritize plugging orphan wells located near frack waste injection wells, instead of plugging orphan wells based on how dangerous or polluting they are.
• Eliminate the requirement for a fracking permit applicant to enter into a road use agreement with local governments, instead making these agreements voluntary and expiring after three years.
• Exempt the requirement for a fracking permit holder to obtain a heavy hauling permit, even if the load size or weight of their trucks exceed legal limits.

S.B. 219 has passed the Ohio Senate Energy Committee and Ohio Senate floor, and is now in the Ohio House Natural Resources Committee, chaired by Monica Robb Blasdel.

Ohio Senate Bill 294

If S.B. 219 would grease the skids for the oil and gas industry to frack Ohio with even fewer regulations, S.B. 294 could eliminate its competition for energy generation. 

A three-page bill based model legislation from the longtime climate change-denying American Legislative Exchange Council, S.B. 294 would make it easier to approve oil, gas, and nuclear plants — while acting as a de facto statewide ban on solar and wind. 

Sponsored by Ohio Republican state Sens. George Lang and Mark Romanchuk, Ohio Senate Bill 294 would “declare the state’s energy siting policy” by instructing the Ohio Power Siting Board on which kinds of projects they should approve, and which they should deny. 

S.B. 294 does this through definitions of four concepts — “affordable,” “clean,” “reliable,” and “foreign adversary.” These concepts sound reasonable, until you dig into them. 

• “Clean” would include fracked gas and nuclear, neither of which are clean. Previous Ohio laws have already defined gas (H.B. 507) and nuclear (H.B. 308) as “green.” The only reason to now define them as “clean” is to make them eligible for federal tax credits meant for renewables.
• “Reliable” requires energy to be available at all times. Solar and wind energy can be made available at all times if they are paired with battery storage — but S.B. 294 does not recognize the existence of batteries.
• “Affordable” energy must have a stable and predictable cost and deliver substantial savings to customers. Solar and wind are now the cheapest forms of energy. 
• “Foreign adversary” refers to North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. The bill would instruct the siting board to minimize reliance on these nations for critical materials, and prioritize materials from Ohio — a clear reference to gas fracked in Appalachia. 

Yet Ohio is also a leading manufacturer of solar panels.

First Solar in Perrysburg employs 2,400 workers, and Illuminate USA in Pataskala employs 1,000 people, with plans to expand to over 1,500.

The solar industry as a whole employs over 8,100 people in Ohio — but you rarely hear about that at the Ohio Statehouse. 

Instead, this legislature has a history of passing laws to squash solar and wind energy:

• In 2014, the most draconian wind turbine setback law in the country was inserted into the state budget bill, where it passed, hobbling the wind industry.
• In 2021, the legislature passed Ohio Senate Bill 52, which allows local counties and townships to ban solar and wind — so far 37 counties have, making solar almost impossible to site. Meanwhile only the state has jurisdiction over where a frack pad or gas plant can go.
• Even where renewable energy is not banned, the siting board has squashed 2000 MW of solar — enough to power Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati combined — all at a time when everyone agrees we need more electricity on the grid. 

S.B. 294 would put the final nails in the coffin of solar and wind energy in Ohio, while boosting oil and gas.

It is currently in the Ohio Senate Energy Committee, chaired by Republican state Sen. Brian Chavez.

Ohio can do better than S.B. 219 and S.B. 294.

Our legislature must stop kowtowing to the greed of one industry and start doing what is best for the people of Ohio and our environment. 

Cathy Cowan Becker is board president of Save Ohio Parks, a statewide nonprofit citizens group concerned about fracking of Ohio’s state parks, wildlife areas, and public lands. She lives in Hilliard, Ohio.

This commentary was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal on March 13, 2026.