THIS IS LAME DUCK SESSION at the Ohio statehouse!!!
If you can make calls for at least one of these bill disasters below, GREAT!!!
PRIORITY #1 - stop the anti-protest bill from passing in the house:
SB 250 passed in the Ohio Senate last week by a margin of 23 to 5. Buckeye Environmental Council and Sierra Club released a joint statement that you can read by clicking HERE.
Among the 30+ residents testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee this month was Carolyn Harding. Click on the image below to watch how she refused to be silenced by Chairman Bacon:
PLEASE FIND and CALL YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE and urge them to oppose SB 250. The Ohio government is trying to create solutions on the wrong end of the issue. Rather than criminalizing concerned and educated citizens who are protecting their communities and future, they need to be making it difficult for the oil & gas industry to rape our communities and resources in the face of exacerbated climate change.
PRIORITY #2 - stop the "brine bill" from passing in the senate:
Many of us in Ohio testified before the Ohio Senate Public Utilities Committee this year, presenting much damning evidence in the face of frack brine spreading on county roads and the selling of bottles of Aqua Salina on shelves of stores in Ohio. In spite of presenting information that at least two people have been known to have died of cancers caused by ingesting dust laden with heavy metals from frack brines spread on dirt roads (the real number could be in the hundreds or thousands but we do not know since Ohio does not keep track of deaths from oil & gas production contaminations), the Ohio house passed HB 393 in lame duck session last week.
We MUST REMIND our senators that bottles of Aqua Salina have been shown to contain over 300 times the EPA limit for radium right off the shelf. We can't allow Ohio to use this product on our sidewalks and driveways to track the radionuclides into our homes and carpets., never mind onto our dirt to become airborne in the dust in dry seasons.
Please FIND and CALL your state senator and urge them to oppose SB 165, the "brine as a commodity bill" this week.
If you have the time, please call the members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as the bill should still be in committee:
| District |
Name |
Phone |
email |
| 7 |
Wilson,
Steve (R-Maineville) |
(614) 466-9737 |
wilson@ohiosenate.gov |
| 3 |
Bacon,
Kevin (R-Minerva Park) |
(614) 466-8064 |
bacon@ohiosenate.gov |
| 5 |
Beagle,
Bill (R-Tipp City) |
(614) 466-6247 |
beagle@ohiosenate.gov |
| 32 |
O'Brien,
Sean (D-Bazetta) |
(614) 466-7182 |
obrien@ohiosenate.gov |
| 24 |
Dolan,
Matt (R-Chagrin Falls) |
(614) 466-8056 |
dolan@ohiosenate.gov |
| 2 |
Gardner,
Randy (R-Bowling Green) |
(614) 466-8060 |
gardner@ohiosenate.gov |
| 30 |
Hoagland,
Frank (R-Adena) |
(614) 466-6508 |
hoagland@ohiosenate.gov |
| 31 |
Hottinger,
Jay (R-Newark) |
(614) 466-5838 |
hottinger@ohiosenate.gov |
| 27 |
LaRose,
Frank (R-Hudson) |
(614) 466-4823 |
larose@ohiosenate.gov |
| 23 |
Skindell,
Michael (D-Lakewood) |
(614) 466-5123 |
skindell@ohiosenate.gov |
| 21 |
Williams,
Sandra (D-Cleveland) |
(614) 466-4857 |
williams@ohiosenate.gov |
Teresa Mills of Center for Health and Environmental Justice recently informed us,
"We have some very dangerous democrats on the committee; these are Democrats that I have to question if they aren't really republicans in sheep's clothes. One dem on the committee voted to move SB 250 out of committee (O'Brien). He voted with the Republicans and against his two fellow Dems. Also, one Dem on the committee (Sandra Williams) was the only Dem to vote for SB 250.
PRIORITY #3 - stop the HJR 19 from passing in the house:
This legislation may be the latest assault on participatory democracy in Ohio. As Rep. David Leland (D-22) stated on NBC 4's 'The Spectrum' Sunday morning, the statehouse has gerrymandered the voters' ability to change our legislators and now they are making it much more difficult to use the only path left to change our govenment.
This resolution, if passed by the voters of Ohio, will:
-Raise the bar for passing citizen-based initiatives by required 60% passage, but still keeping the legislature-based initiatives at 50.1% majority vote
-Put a time limit of 180 days (6 months!) for gathering signatures across the state
-Require signatures be collected during winter months, by placing the deadline for the 180 day timeline in April. When asked why the legislature would make petitioners collect in the winter months by the NBC commentator, Rep. Leland replied, "Because they don't want these initiatives to pass!!"
Please see the attached file with Leland's statement on HJR 19, and
Please CALL your state representative and urge them to OPPOSE HJR 19. It is already difficult enough to pass initiatives in Ohio, and it is completely unnecessary to make it even more difficult.
You can read more from Cleveland.com by clicking HERE.
More reading in Esquire Magazine HERE. |
