Before “fracking” guidelines are set on land owned by Ohio University, the Board of Trustees wants to know how members of the institution view the drilling practice.
OU’s President's Advisory Council on Sustainability Planning and the Ecology and Energy Conservation Committee are concluding a month’s worth of public forums among OU’s campuses tonight at 7 p.m. at Baker Center Theatre.
The forums are part of a plan to gather input about hydraulic fracturing from members of all six campuses concluding with tonight’s panel discussion, said Annie Laurie Cadmus, director of sustainability. Fracking is the practice of extracting natural gas from shale formations thousands of feet below the earth’s surface.
Rewrites to Ohio House Bill 133, which deal with oil and gas development on state land, must be completed by June 30. In turn, the Board of Trustees wants any feedback at the beginning of April so it can be discussed at the April 20 meeting, she said.
In the amended house bill, the board of trustees, by majority vote, has all control or rights to mine or lease minerals on the university land said Nicolette Dioguardi, deputy general council at OU and one of tonight’s six panelists.
“I certainly think we need to be on our toes and ahead of the curves if we want to get the protection in a lease,” she said. “If we decide to do a lease.”
As Baker Center Theater only holds about 150 attendees, the forum will be streamed live online here:
http://www.ohio.edu/mediaserver/live.cfm?videoid=ccd36fc20cba
