COLUMBUS, OH — Today, the Ohio House voted 59-33 to approve the amended House Bill 507 after a concurrence vote, and the legislation now heads to Governor DeWine’s desk. This legislation originally intended to govern the sale of poultry takes away critical public oversight and could lock-in polluters’ control over what public lands in Ohio are leased and when.
We now know, thanks to reporting and acknowledgements by elected officials, that these two amendments were pushed through by the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and the Empowerment Alliance, an anonymously funded 501(c)4 organization seeking to mislead Ohioans and “greenwash” natural gas, painting it as sustainable, clean energy instead of a fossil fuel.
The Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) Action Fund strongly opposes these giveaways to the fossil fuel industry and calls on Governor DeWine to act in accordance with his track record of safeguarding Ohio’s state parks and public lands and veto amended House Bill 507.
Each General Assembly, the OEC Action Fund scores lawmakers and the current state administration on their votes on policy that protects or harms Ohio’s democracy, land, water, and energy resources. The 134th General Assembly Action Fund Scorecard will be released in February 2023 with rankings on legislators’ votes—including on HB 507.
The following quote can be attributed, in whole or in part, to Pete Bucher, Interim President for the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) Action Fund:
“These amendments, urged by the Oil and Gas Association and the dark-money group The Empowerment Alliance, are nothing but political cronyism added at the last minute. To put it simply, these groups are too ‘chicken’ to have a public, transparent conversation on these issues, so they exerted their influence to sneak these amendments in at the last minute. These fossil fuel interest groups know major employers, public institutions and the public support moving to clean energy and protecting our public lands, so they hid from a public debate and snuck these amendments in. Ohioans deserve better, and we urge Governor Mike DeWine to veto HB 507.”
Marisa Twigg, Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund, mtwigg@theoec.org
1 https://www.rtoinsider.com/articles/31258-ohio-senate-votes-to-declare-natural-gas-green