For over a century, oil and gas drillers have peppered Ohio with countless thousands of wells. Those speculators have since abandoned most of their operations. But some of those left-behind, “orphan” wells are still spewing poisonous and hazardous materials from underground deposits into nearby homes, buildings and farm lands.
Ohio requires oil and gas producers to pay into a fund for plugging those wells. But the State is remediating only about 20 wells a year, leaving thousands of wells untended.
Yet Southeast Ohio’s recent oil and gas fracking boom has generated millions of increased income for the Orphan Well fund and related activities, from Ohio’s modest severance tax on oil and gas production.
But rather than dedicate a major share of that severance tax windfall into a comprehensive program to rid Ohio of its orphan wells, Kasich is seeking instead to divert most of that money into the general fund to pay for tax cuts, and spend only the legal minimum on orphan well plugging.
These orphan wells potentially threaten lives and the environment. Some seep methane, a greenhouse gas that can explode. Others leak brine and toxic chemicals that can pollute drinking water sources and poison farm land. Fracking may create new subsurface fractures that allow discharges of additional gasses through the orphan wells. And what if Timmy falls into one of those abandoned wells, and Lassie isn’t quick enough to save him?
Even the oil and gas drillers are upset. They are paying big bucks in severance taxes, but rarely see any abandoned wells plugged.
Kasich has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to eliminate a hidden threat to the health and safety of Ohio’s residents. Instead, he chooses to cut taxes.
I wrote this diary after visiting southeast Ohio and seeing the fracking boom first hand last April. Kasich seemed as politically helpless then as a tadpole in a mud puddle, so I let it slide.
I decided to publish this now after seeing Kasich is still polling strong against Hillary. Heck, he could even end up in the VP slot.
I’m working in the backyard and will respond to comments intermittently all afternoon.
PS: An angry font is creating a small question mark in a black box that often �appears in my diary texts since I switched to Windows 10. I’ve tried to erase those from this diary after it was published, but sometimes they reappear.