(VIDEO: COMMISSIONER RICHARD REGULA) WHERE ARE THE FRACKING/FRACKING GENERATED JOBS COMMISSIONER REGULA, MAYOR HEALY?

VIDEO

Stark County Commissioner Richard Regula

on

Stark County Economic Development

March 27, 2013

TOPICS COVERED

• Oil & Gas Industry a Boon to Stark County?
• Spin Off to Alliance
• The Hercules Project.  Will it Fly?
• Steve Coon - The Onesta?
• A Message to Concerned Citizens of Stark
• ODNR:  Can Be Trusted to Protect Environment
• Fuel Cells:  "The Wave of the Future"
• A Summation:  Gibbs Transportation Symposium (03/26/2013)
• Extension of U.S. Route 30 in Ohio

It was tragically amusing (for Stark County) yesterday to read in an editorial in Canton's local newspaper:

While Canton is not the “Utica Capital,” as Mayor William J. Healy II enthusiastically dubbed it in his 2012 State of the City speech, it’s nearby. It is the largest city close to the boom in drilling for oil and natural gas in this region, and the resulting economic growth is more apparent by the day.

Apparently, these editors have bought lock, stock and barrel Healy's ebullience for oil and natural gas drilling as being inevitably "on the mark," if not so much for Stark County.

It could be that in the end the supposed beneficial permanent effect will turn out to be "a hope and a prayer" invoked by desperate politicians (a la Healy) rather than a reality not only in Stark County but perhaps for all the oil and gas producing areas of Ohio

Notice that the editors use the words "economic growth" not "economic boom" (a tempering of prospects?) that some in the oil and gas industry have predicted in recent years, to wit:

Of course 2025 is a ways off.

However, more and more media reports and editorials are surfacing questioning whether or not the oil and gas industry prophesied numbers will get anywhere near the 530,000 jobs in the industry itself and in spin off to the service and manufacturing sectors of the American economy.

Mayor Healy was dealt a huge blow on his plan for Canton to be the Utica shale capital when it was announced on July 16, 2012 that major fracking player Chesapeake Energy LLC of Oklahoma City announced that its Stark County headquarters would be in the 9,200 citizen city of Louisville rather than in The Hall of Fame City.

Even at that, it appears to the SCPR from comments made by Louisville City Manager Tom Ault about "spin off" jobs that neither Louisville nor Stark County is going to be experiencing anything like what is going on with fracking in North Dakota these days.

North Dakota’s economy has outpaced every state since the recession ended in 2009, with the fastest growth in personal income, tax revenue, jobs and home prices, according to Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States data. Its 3.2 percent December jobless rate compared with 7.8 percent nationwide.  (North Dakota Fracking Boom Leaves Oil Hub a Bust: Muni Credit, Bloomberg.com, Jennifer Oldham, February 26, 2013).

And hopefully Louisville will not become another Williston, North Dakota, to wit:

While the U.S. Census counts about 16,000 residents, Williston says it provides services to more than 38,000, including workers living in temporary camps, hotels, and even vehicles. Keeping up with the load is spurring budget gaps that will deplete rainy-day funds, according to Standard & Poor’s, which cut city debt to BBB+ in December, three steps above junk.

It does not appear that such will be the case.

Just look at what fracking or lack thereof has developed in Stark County proper so far:

 

A report surfaced this weekend that three hotels will be going up in the near future at the intersection of I77 and Faircrest that are expected to provide as many as 140 temporary construction jobs and 75 "permanent?" jobs.

Why the question mark?

Because the so called permanent jobs, the SCPR believes, will only last as long has the occupancy rate justifies them.

Hmm?  

Who are the hotels designed to house?

Itinerant workers associated with the oil and gas industry, no?

Permanent jobs?

Look again at the Williston, North Dakota experience folks.

Reportedly, the hotel developers will be asking Canton for 10 years worth of tax breaks.

Hmm?

Could the hotels end up being a losing proposition for the taxpayers of Canton if council members/the mayor fail to do their "due diligence?"

Indeed!

Across the nation there are pockets of seeming economic success with fracking for natural gas and oil reserves (wet gas) being the impetuous for the gains.  But not nearly as much as hyped.

Take Ohio and this report.

A 1.4% job growth rate growth (2012) does not quite square up with the implied predictions of locals like Mayor Healy and Stark County Commissioner Richard Regula.

Recently, the SCPR sat down with Regula to talk to him about a recent transportation industry job needs symposium hosted at Malone University by 7th District (which includes most of Canton/Stark County) Bob Gibbs (Republican - Holmes County).

However, Regula's enthusiasm for fracking impelled him to veer off topic and extol the potential for Stark County of the production of oil and gas.  He was careful to say that the industry can flourish while paying heed to the likes of Chris Borello and her Concerned Citizens of Stark County for environmental factors that environmentalists focus upon as unwanted tag alongs with this form of economic development.

Among Stark County's government leaders, only Plain Township trustee Louis Giavasis has paid serious attention to potential adverse environmental consequences that may come with fracking.  Over three years ago he was the lead among Stark government officials in proposing a statewide moratorium and in banning it on and under township owned property.

To their credit, some on Canton City Council have been skeptical of Healy's rah-rah for fracking posture.

And maybe the king of Ohio's fracking enthusiasts (Republican Governor John Kasich) is getting worried, to wit:

If you were going to do a really serious study you would look at these things,” she said. “If water is contaminated and fish die, what are the fishermen going to do? If you have parks where people go for peace and quiet, what happens when you turn it into an industrial landscape? If you have an organic dairy and the soil is polluted, what does that mean? These are all valid questions.  (LINK:  Grist.org, Ohio fracking boom has not brought jobs, John Upton, March 22, 2013)

A critically important question has been raised in one recent publication:  

But what if cheap, domestic natural gas isn't actually sustainable? What if rosy claims of fracking our way to energy independence is just an industry pitch that Washington has bought? (LINK)

Here this from the same article:

I've spent thousands of hours working through data and consulting and collaborating with very knowledgeable colleagues, said Art Berman, an oil and gas geologist who heads Labyrinth Consulting, a Houston-based geological consulting firm. Right now, everybody's losing money. And the whole picture is highly tenuous.

Hmm?

Could it be that the likes of Healy and Regula are 21st century Pied-Pipers who could actually be leading Stark County to continued economic development stagnation if not negativity?

Shouldn't Stark Countians be looking long and hard at the leadership of those who are "bananas for those HOT (for now) fracking jobs?

Remember Williston, North Dakota.

Canton, Louisville, and Stark County's taxpayers hardly need to be picking up the the tab for the oil and gas industry, no?

ANTI-FRACKERS LACK POLITICAL SOPHISTICATION & DETERMINATION? IS GOP STATE REP. CHRISTINA HAGAN'S SUPPORT FOR FRACKING BOUGHT & PAID FOR BY OIL & GAS LOBBY IN THE FORM OF CAMPAIGN FUND CONTRIBUTIONS?

UPDATE:  4:00 PM

The Report has learned that the Buckeye Forest Council is working with state Rep. Robert Hagan (D - Youngstown) to introduce a bill to reverse the shifting of local control of oil and gas exploration to the state of Ohio.

ORIGINAL BLOG

Plain Township Trustee Giavasis had an opportunity to take on Republican Party (50th House District) appointee Christina Hagan (March 2, 2011) come the November, 2012 election.

Hagan was appointed by the House Republican Caucus to replace Todd Snitchler (Republican Lake - now chairman of the PUCO)

But he said no to the Ohio Democratic House Caucus.

So?

Well, Giavasis has been one of the few Stark County elected officials to take as stance against proceeding with fracking (the process to force natural gas and oil out of Utica shale depositions underlying much of Stark County) without assurance that the process is safe.

Safe?

Yes,  in terms of the water we drink, the air we breath, the roads we drive on, just name a few among from long list of fracking consequences concerns held by folks like the Plain Township trustee.

News surfaced today (updated) in a Cleveland Plain Dealer report by reporter Aaron Marshall (Ohio's oil and gas industry emerging as a big player in the political process) showing that Christina Hagan, who is on record as being very supportive of going "full speed ahead" with fracking, has been rewarded with campaign funding by one of the biggest players (Chesapeake Energy) in extracting oil and gas from subterranean Stark County.

From the Marshall article:

While the added lobbying muscle of Ohio's oil and gas industry is still emerging, campaign finance reports show five of the major oil and gas industry PACs poured nearly $600,000 into politician coffers since 2010, including nearly $100,000 since last March to state lawmakers from Chesapeake Energy.

Hagan is high on the list.  She is third from the top of the list of 19 Ohio House members who received from Chesapeake (or its lobbyists) for the period March, 2011 (when she was appointed) through January of this year.  

This is to a woman who has never been elected to anything and has only been in in the Ohio House of Representatives as a political appointee for a little more than one year.

It is interesting to note that the leader on the list (David Hall) along with state Rep Ron Amstutz of nearby Wooster (received $1,000) was in Stark County (Louisville) last May as mentor/minder figures for Hagan when she did a town hall meeting.

It appears that Hagan is getting expert and effective advice on how to raise campaign cash which is "the mother's milk of politics."

As it turns out, had Giavasis taken on the challenge; when asked, Stark County would be witnessing a head-to-head confrontation between Hagan, an oil and gas industry apologist, and Stark County's leading critic on the "rush to frack" on the part of the oil and gas industry.

Beyond the fracking issue,  there are other issues to be exploited against Hagan.

She supported the anti-teacher, fire fighter and policemen (and other public employees) Senate Bill 5 which was soundly rejected by Ohio/Stark County voters (as State Issue 2) in November, 2011.

Moreover, it is hard to see how she shows her face at local government meetings inasmuch as she supported massive Ohio budget cuts in local government funding including the termination (effective January 1, 2013) of the Ohio Estate Tax which provided funds for unbudgeted local government projects.

However, with Giavasis having opted out of taking her on, it seems to the SCPR that she will be elected.

The Report believes that Giavasis is the only talked about potential candidate that posed a serious threat to Hagan's continuance in office.

He has run many tough campaigns as a candidate for Plain trustee and has proved to be a political survivor.

Indications are that he would have been an formidable candidate.

Actual Democratic nominee Sue Ryan (a councilwoman-at-large in Alliance) seems to be no threat whatsoever.  Could we be in for a surprise?

All of which goes to a point that the SCPR has made repeatedly to the likes of Chris Borello (Stark County Concerned Citizens), to wit:

She and those who agree with her (i.e. Giavasis) appear to lack the political sophistication and savvy needed to be effective against the likes of Chesapeake Energy and their political handmaidens such as Hagan.

Giavasis has been Plain Township trustee for about 20 years which takes one back to about 1992.

One would think as a quintessential local government leader he would have been keeping his "ear to the ground" on matters such as legislative efforts to gut local control over oil and gas drilling.

So where were he and prime supporters Borello et al (who got started in the early 1980s trying to get a clean up of the hazardous materials in the Uniontown Industrial Excess Landfill) when it came to legislation being passed in Ohio in 2004 and 2010 that effectively took away any ability of local communities to control fracking?

From a January 16, 2012 SCPR blog (Will the 2012 election be accountability time for the Schuring & Slesnick against local control [fracking])?

Schuring [and Oelslager] (HB 278 [2004], SB 165 [2010]) and Slesnick voted for SB 165 and thereby took away what little say local governments has about oil and gas extraction processes (including fracking operations).

Why weren't Giavasis and friends making the local control case against local legislators running for re-election in 2004 and thereafter?

Now they complain?

Maybe they should take a page out of the playbook of Tuscarawas Township residents who were outraged when former Massillon Mayor Francis Cicchinelli, Jr. tried to annex the Tuslaw High School complex.

The Tuscarawas folks marshaled their forces and put together an effective and focused door-to-door campaign in Massillon which some political observers believe to have been the difference maker in Cicchinelli's loss.

Could a Giavasis for state representative versus Hagan campaign have motivated anti-frackers to support him with purse and on-the-ground campaign worker power?

The Report thinks such might well have been the case.

But since he chose not to run in that his heart was not in it, all one can say is that he missed an opportunity to make a real difference. 

Giavasis could have been, if elected, another voice in addition to that of Youngstown area state Rep. Bob Hagan (Democrat) and a few others in the Ohio General Assembly to bring caution to the "rush to frack" and to retrieve some local control over fracking.

Chesapeake and friends are politically sophisticated, farsighted, organized and focused.  By virtue of these attributes, they are winning the local control of fracking argument.

The anti-frackers, by contrast, appear to be politically discombobulated.

If these folks want to reverse their fortunes, they going to have to develop political techniques, strategies and determination and candidates for office that can match up against Chesapeake et al.

But the leadership element within the anti-fracking movement is so lacking that their getting their political act together does not appear to be in the offing.

Consequently, in November, 2012 it appears that there will be no political accountability for legislative candidates Hagan (R-Marlboro), Schuring (R-Jackson) and Slesnick (D-Canton)!

STARK COUNTY OFFICIALS & FIRST RESPONDERS UNPREPARED FOR POSSIBLE FRACKING DISASTER?

Holding elective office can be an ego fulfilling and a generally heady experience.

But it can also be a nightmare!

Because when a calamity happens, it is to elected officials and their top appointees (e.g. directors, chiefs, et cetera) that the public turn to for swift response and effective action.

And they had better have answers!

None of us will forget the immediate days of post-Katrina (2005) the then-President George W. Bush was on television with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Chief Mike Brown saying:  "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job."

Within ten days it became apparent that "Brownie" was not doing a heckuva job and he was abruptly fired by the politician Bush.

Bush likely was fortunate that Katrina did not happen one year earlier or we might well have been talking in 2005 about President John Kerry.

Right now, from Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich down through Democratic Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II; (the self-proclaimer of Canton being "The Utica Capital") are examples of public officials governing within the Marcellus and Utica Shale fields being ga-ga over the  potential jobs and concomitant tax revenues that may be on their way to all levels of state and local government as the oil and gas industry rushes to get up and running with what is called a "fracking" drilling operation to free natural gas encased in the shale.

Because of "the great recession" that began at the end of the Bush years in 2008 and have continued through the Obama administration, government budgets across American have had shortfall after shortfall after shortfall including, of course, Ohio; perhaps worse than other parts of the country.

It is likely that the political need to escape the "doom and gloom" is causative of Kasich, Healy and their like not focusing much on the environmental disaster or two, or three that surely lurk just over the horizon once fracking hits full bore, if not before.

A DeepWater Horizon oil well exploding in the Gulf of Mexico (April 20, 2010), was a shock to Americans in that the industry could not figure out until September 19, 2010 a way to stop the oil leaking from the damaged well that played havoc with the Gulf ecosystem (and the resort economy) including the shorelines of Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

It seems highly unlikely that something of the magnitude of Deep Water Horizon could happen from a fracking accident, but nobody really knows.

Recently, the SCPR spoke with a Stark County fire chief who is alarmed that with the onset of fracking in Stark (which the last that The Report knew consists of three wells so far) that little if any fracking well disaster preparedness has occurred.

One Stark County official (unelected) has been trying.  Stark County Local Emergency Planning Committee Director Don McDonald (a former fire captain from Jackson Township) set up a meeting scheduled for this past Saturday (March 10, 2012) at Stark State College, to wit: 

From: SCLEPC [mailto:sclepc@co.stark.oh.us]

Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 12:14 PM

To: ...

Save the date: March 10, 2012

From: Don McDonald – Program Director Stark County LEPC

A ½ day (morning) Symposium on Natural Resources and Deep Well Development will be conducted on Saturday, March 10 at Stark State College.

Scheduled presenters include representatives from The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Educational Program (OOGEEP), The Ohio Dept of Natural Resources (ODNR), The Ohio EPA, the Battelle
Corp. and others.  Our intended audience will include elected officials from the county, cities, villages, and townships as well as the fire and police chiefs serving those communities.

This is not a 1st responder training event.  The symposium is intended to provide unbiased information on the issue of hydraulic fracturing to all of these officials so that they may have accurate information to provide to their constituents and to use in policy making decisions that may be impacted by this issue.

More information will be provided in the very near future.  Attendance to this symposium will be by invitation only.  Please save this date as this symposium will be both timely and informative to you and your staff.

Thank you for your time,

Don McDonald, Contact person for the Symposium Planning Committee

Office: 330-451-3907

Good effort, Don McDonald.

But the planned March 10th event never happened.

Why not?

It appears to the SCPR for three reasons.

First, it seems that a number of Stark County elected officials took offense (led, in the opinion of The Report by Plain Township trustee Louis Giavasis) as what they deemed to have been an overreach by McDonald and the "symposium committee" consisting of:

• McDonald, (program director of SCLEPC)
• Representative Christina Hagan, (Republican - 50th House District)
• Fred Bertram, (Dean at Stark State College [SSC], teaches hazardous materials course)
• Ted Heck, (former Jackson fire chief, teaches at SSC)
• Art Murdoch, (chairman of SCLEPC)
• Lance Wilcox,  (VP - Mr Rapid - emergency cleanup services)
• Bart Ray, (Special Investigator / On-scene Coordinator, Ohio EPA)
• Barb Stoll, (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Ohio)
• Jack Liberator, (Canton Township Fire Dept., - deputy chief)

Second, some interested parties (most Stark County environmentalists) did not think the make up of the presenters of the planned symposium was "unbiased" as advertised, to wit:

Scheduled presenters include representatives from The Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Educational Program (OOGEEP), The Ohio Dept of Natural Resources (ODNR), The Ohio EPA, the Battelle
Corp. and others.

The symposium is intended to provide unbiased information on the issue of hydraulic fracturing to all of these officials so that they may have accurate information to provide to their constituents and to use in policy making decisions that may be impacted by this issue. (emphasis added)

Third, the symposium notice contained "This is not a 1st responder training event."  Really?  Isn't preparing/supporting first responders the first and perhaps only mission of SCLEPC?

In any event, McDonald tells the SCPR that no replacement of the March 10th cancellation will be generated by SCLEPC.  He says that the only thing planned by his organization is to develop opportunities for first responders to have emergency preparedness specific to a fracking accident.

He declined to answer the SCPR's question as to whether or not he had been pressured by Stark County elected officials and their chief appointed fire, police and EMS to call the event off.

The SCPR is convinced that this is exactly what happened.

And that is all well and good, but what do these same officials have in mind in order to get Stark County's first responders to handle a catatrophic-esque fracking event when it happens.

Stark County Engineer Keith Bennett is an example of a local government official who has anticipated the taxing impact that the heavy trucks used in fracking operations will have on Stark County roads.

A week or so ago Engineer Bennett told the SCPR in an interview that there have been instances where these trucks have damaged county roads.  However, do to his anticipation that such would be the case, he has put together an agreement consistent with state of Ohio standards that he requires fracking operators to sign off on before putting their trucks on county roads.

Only oil and gas industry folks and overly optimistic public officials fixed on the financial cure that fracking MIGHT bring to Stark's local governments (the State of Ohio, in the case of Governor Kasich) believe that thousands upon thousands of wells can be drilled without a major, major problem erupting.

The SCPR believes the Stark County fire chief who is concerned about the utter lack of training for first responders to be prepared for and equipped to deal with a disaster when it comes.   The chief agrees with The Report that it is not IF but WHEN.  Moreover, he is concerned as to whether or not the frackers are going to try to stick the tax paying public with the expense of dealing with malfunctioning wells.

The fire chief and Engineer Bennett are examples of local government officials who are doing their respective jobs the way all public officials should be be doing them:  anticipating that there will be problems, identify as precisely as possible as to what they may be, prepare for them and insist that other levels of government facilitate and empower them to deal with the expected problems in an effective manner.

The Report is told by Trustee Giavasis that when an accident occurs, neither first responders nor SCLEPC will be allowed by drillers/well lessees onto the site of the problem initially.

Only when first responders are invited to deal with the calamity by the lessees, can they do anything but deal with off well site problems that threaten residents in those areas.

Many Stark Countians, including yours truly, are reconciled to the reality that fracking is going to happen.

But what we are not comfortable with include:

• the state of Ohio not empowering local emergency forces and local hazardous materials organizations (i.e. LEPCs) to have immediate access to a disaster site,
• the state of Ohio not setting aside funding for forums/hands-on-training-exercises to be utilized by first responders so that they can develop techniques and strategies for coping with a real event,
• the state of Ohio making lessees, operators, drillers and other participants in fracking operations Responsible Parties in terms of indemnification to local governments  which initially bear the cost of calamity remediation,
• the state of Ohio requiring Responsible Parties to carry insurances and bonding at levels that will provide for the indemnification of local governments for the injury to public resources (e.g. potable water, et cetera) and also for individual property owners who sustain injury and damage,
• the Stark County Local Emergency Planning Committee being behind in developing resources and training opportunities for first responders so that they can prepared for a serious fracking mishaps as they occur.

It has come to light that injection wells used to dispose of chemical ladened fracking well waste water was responsible for a series of earthquake tremors that afflicted the Youngstown area recently.

We all remember how the first suggestions of such were laughed off by oil and gas industry principals and their cheerleaders.

But they aren't laughing anymore.

Nor will oil and gas industry officials nor unresponsive public officials be laughing when a fracking disaster strikes and they have to face an outraged public demanding to know why local governments and their first responders were not empowered, prepared, trained and equipped to deal immediately and effectively with an environmental calamity.

"Woe is me!" will be the cry of a public official who is shown to have not put "oil in the lamp" of his/her community in preparation for the inevitable fracking problems which will buffeting our communities in the years to come.

(VIDEOS - 2) PLAIN TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE LOU GIAVASIS HAD THE "FULL ATTENTION" OF NORTH CANTON COUNCIL MEMBERS LAST NIGHT. LOOK FOR HIM TO UNITE STARK COUNTY GOVERNMENTS IN AN ENDEAVOR TO "SLOW DOWN" THE RUSH TO FRACK!

Plain Township Trustee Louis Giavasis had the rapt attention of North Canton City Council (Council) members at last night Committee of the Whole meeting.

For the "Concerned Citizens of Stark County" he is Saint Louis.  He was the first Stark County government leader to say "hold on a minute" to the oil and gas industry and to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (the supposed safeguard for Ohio's citizens from the dangers of oil and gas exploration) as word got out that oil and gas representatives were signing up scores of Stark Countians to leases as a prelude to natural gas drillers setting up operations in Stark to do what is known as hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) to get at natural gas deposits encased in rock some 8,000 feet below the surface.

The process involves injecting a solution of chemicals (many of which are deemed hazardous to human health) and sand under high pressure down a well shaft vertically and then horizontally to fracture the rock so that the natural gas can be recovered.  The chemical laced solution is then brought back to the surface.

In the video below, Stark Countians can see and hear Councilmen Jon Snyder (Ward 4; Council president), Doug Foltz (Ward 1), Jeff Davies (Ward 3) and Daniel Peters (Ward 2) dialogue with Giavasis on their concerns.



Giavasis is in the process of putting together a coalition of Stark County governments (e.g. Plain, Perry, Canton, Jackson, and, perhaps, Alliance and Hartville) to convince area legislators (Slesnick, Schuring, Hagan and Oelslager) that they need to lead the fight in the Legislature to slow down the "rush to frack" until more is known about the dangers that fracking may pose to Stark County communities.

Giavasis is focusing his effort on:

• slowing down the rush to frack at least until a U.S. EPA study on the dangers of the process comes out in about two years, and
• ensuring that oil and gas companies, if they are so cocksure about the safety of the process, are required by Ohio law to hold local communities harmless on any and all damages that may materialize from the drilling.

It appears to the SCPR that he is get very little "effective" help from area legislators.  No surprise to The Report.

Slenick (D - Canton - 52nd) is pushing for legislation requiring drilling companies to increase liability insurance coverage from $3 million to $5 million, which Giavasis considers to be wholly inadequate.  Schuring is supposedly working on his own version of state imposition of higher levels of liabilities with concomitant insurance/bonding coverage.

In the video that follows, Giavasis talks in detail about his effort to organize Stark County government in order to put pressure on the Ohio General Assembly to shore up drillers' legal obligation and in place securitization (meaning having the finance resource in reserve to indemnify local governments for their expenses should an accident occur).

Also, North Canton Council President Snyder speaks about his concurrence with Giavasis on certain aspects of his presentation and the prospects of Council taking action to join Giavsis' effort.