Chesapeake Energy Tied to Mansfield, OH Bill of Rights Astroturf Attack
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"by Steve Horn, Desmoblog/Report
The oil and gas industry is waging an 11th hour astroturf campaign in Mansfield, OH in an attempt to defeat the "Community Bill of Rights" referendum.
A "yes" vote would, in effect, prohibit hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") injection wells in Mansfield, a city of 48,000 located in the heart of the Utica Shale basin between Cleveland and Columbus.
In March 2012, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) conducted a study linking the 12 earthquakes that have occurred in Youngstown, OH to injection wells located in the city. Further, recent investigative reports by ProPublica show that these new dumping grounds - with a staggering 150,000 injection wells in 33 states and 10 trillion gallons of toxic fluid underground - are a public health hazard in the making.
And yet, for the most part, hardly anyone is talking about it.
Preferred Fluids Management LLC is the upstart business that received two well injection permits from the ODNR in the spring of 2011 that motivated the "Bill of Rights" initiative. Industry front groups ranging from Energy in Depth (EID), Energy Citizens, Ohio Energy Resource Alliance and "Mansfielders for Jobs" are leading the charge in the astroturf campaign to defeat it.
Why, though, has the fracking industry put so much time and effort into the placement of a measly two injection wells in Mansfield for this relatively unheard of LLC? Michael Chadsey of EID Ohio explained the importance of the waste dumping grounds at a forum on Jan. 30, 2012, stating,
If for some reason they just said, you know, we're going to stop this process, eventually the tanks that are on-site are going to get filled up. And then all the drilling pads are going to have to shut down and all of the truck drivers will have to stop.
So...this is the part of the process that is the end part of the process. When you shut down the end, you can't even start or continue because you have to have all the pieces of the puzzle to make this thing move. Everything is interconnected.
There's that and then there's the fact that Preferred Fluids Management LLC isn't merely a "new kid on the block." Owned and founded by Steven Mobley, the business has a story of its own worthy of sharing, as it's closely connected to gas industry powerhouse, Chesapeake Energy.
Preferred Fluids Management LLC: A Quick Primer
According to documents on the Ohio Secretary of State's Division of Corporations website, Preferred Fluids Management was originally incorporated in February 2010. Since then, fracking waste injection wells have been in the eye of the backlash storm from grassroots activists, environmental NGOs, lawyers, and both federal- and state-level regulators nationwide.
In Ohio, this ongoing backlash motivated Preferred Fluids to withdraw its Mansfield well permits on June 26, 2012.
"While this withdrawal appears to be a city victory over a company that sought to injection toxic poison into our soil, the city must remain vigilant against other companies," Mansfield Mayor Tim Theaker and Law Director John Spon declared.
Roughly three weeks later, Preferred Fluids responded by filing a federal lawsuit in the Northern District Court of Ohio, stating that Mansfield "has no right under Ohio law to regulate the injection wells," according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In response to the lawsuit, on Sept. 9 the Mansfield City Council voted to put the "Community Bill of Rights" referendum on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election."...................................continue reading>>>>>>>> http://truth-out.org/news/item/12590-chesapeake-energy-tied-to-mansfield-oh-bill-of-rights-astroturf-attack