ALEC Slips Exxon Fracking Loopholes into New Ohio Law

[Gold Metal Flake]

http://www.nationofchange.org/alec-slips-exxon-fracking-loopholes-new-ohio-law-1338539750

Wake up and smell the frack fluid. But don’t ask what’s in it, at least not in Ohio, cause it’s still not your right to know.

Ohio is in the final stages of making an Exxon trojan horse on hydrofracking into state law, and it appears that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) connected Exxon’s lawyers with co-sponsors of Ohio Senate Bill 315: at least 33 of the 45 Ohio legislators who co-sponsored SB 315 are ALEC members, and language from portions of the state Senate bill is similar to ALEC’s “Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act.”

Concern over unconventional energy like gas fracking may be the reason by Ohio SB 315 also addresses clean energy standards and drilling regulations. While the new law will allow doctors to obtain disclosure of fracking chemicals, it places a gag order on them…meaning some chemicals aren’t disclosed to the public at all (Cleveland Plain Dealer). Instead, chemicals that subsidiaries of Big Oil use during fracking can remain exempt from public disclosure as “trade secrets,” mirroring language of ALEC’s model law.

What’s most suspicious is that seven of the ten Ohio Senators co-sponsoring SB 315 are ALEC members, as are 26 of the 35 co-sponsoring Representatives.

This is what fascism looks like, y'all.

"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."

— Franklin D. Roosevelt, April 29, 1938. Message to congress

[spanone]

1. i blame the ohio congress....THEY were compromised and complicit

[leftyohiolib]

2. its a way to circumvent the epa any fluid that requires special handling for disposal

will end up being used for fracking.that way they can dispose of whatever they want without epa oversight, fines or penalties.

[Gold Metal Flake]

3. Ayup. And once the underground aquafers are unfit to drink they can privatize the water.

[bongbong]

4. And then...

... they will make it illegal to catch rainwater.

The future makes Orwell's vision positively naive and pleasant.