Environmental news aggregator EcoWatch reports that more than 250 people gathered on the statehouse lawn in Columbus earlier today to demand a moratorium on fracking and the disposal in Ohio of the toxic waste water byproduct of fracking. The injection of that waste water into wells has been blamed for causing ten earthquakes in the Youngstown area in 2011, including a 4.0 magnitude quake on New Year’s Eve.
Among the speakers on the statehouse lawn was state representative Bob Hagan of Youngstown, who last week fired off a letter to Governor John Kasich asking for a fracking time-out until the consequences could be assessed. He echoed that request at the rally, saying,
The people of Ohio and the people of the Mahoning Valley need answers from our government officials. We need to know why over half of the toxic frack water we are blasting into Ohio lands is coming from Pennsylvania. We need to know why there is such a rush to dump this waste in Ohio. And we need to know why it took ten earthquakes in ten months for anyone in the Kasich administration to wake up and respond to calls for a moratorium on these wells. We never had an earthquake in Youngstown until John Kasich was elected governor.
Also speaking were state representatives Nickie Antonio and Mike Foley and state senator Mike Skindell, all from the Cleveland area, Columbus representative Tracy Heard, Columbus senator Charleta Tavares, Toledo representative Teresa Fedor, and Cincinnati representative Denise Driehaus. — Anastasia Pantsios
This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2012.
Bob Hagan is the most entertaining politician in Ohio. He is quite a good speaker and he tries real hard to debate issues with importance. In one of his speeches a few months ago he was talking about how hateful people often are about Obama. He said he was out to eat in Youngstown with his family and some guy told him he hated him because of his support for that @#$!&*#ing (racial slur) president. Sometimes some men talk like there was never a civil rights movement fifty years ago..sad but true. We sure need to change if we ever expect to gain a positive image in the world. I thought our image was bad when I was in the military in the late sixties and early seventies, but then there was almost an excuse because we were (kind of) supposed to be racist and ignorant and prejudice..Sometimes it seems we have not moved very far since then, but then the majority of America did (some how) elect a black president and this could have never happened fifty years ago.
thats really good.
If they started voting Republican around Youngstown then maybe Kasich would stop making their earth quake. And the accusation of hauling in toxic PA water and injecting it into OH land is humorously nebulous. Maybe the water snuck in over the border- nothing a good fence will keep out… lol.