With the potential for hydraulic fracturing on Ohio University property looming, university officials are looking for permission to draft a precautionary lease that would protect land owned by OU.
The Ohio University Board of Trustees heard from the Ad Hoc Mineral Rights Committee Thursday about a resolution that would take steps toward creating a lease. The goal would be to draft a lease before June 30, when Ohio House Bill 133 gives a state commission the power to determine what the leases look like.
In theory, Oil and Gas Leasing Commission could be able to receive recommendations about OU property from a third party in regards to hydraulic fracturing after June 30, said committee member Nicolette Dioguardi.
“We have a safe harbor until June 30 and then we will lose that safe harbor,” said committee member Steve Golding, who also serves as OU’s vice president for Finance and Administration. “If we are authorized to craft a lease before June 30 (by the board), it will protect us in terms of somebody else writing a lease for us and will also protect long term interests of the university and board of trustees as the final determiner of what happens with OU property.”
According to House Bill 133, an Oil and Gas Leasing Commission is made up of five individuals, including State Geologist Larry Wickstrom, who will oversee and coordinate the leasing of land owned or controlled by a state university or college for exploration, development, and production of oil and gas.
The four other members will be appointed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich before June 30 and must include a representative from the oil and gas industry, an expert on finance or real estate and a representative from a statewide environmental organization.
“House Bill 133 has given us a window of opportunity between now and the governor making his appointments,” said Dioguardi, who also serves as OU’s associate director of legal affairs. “We have more say in classifying our own land under our own conditions.”
Although Athens campus is currently in a state of suspension regarding this issue, energy companies seeking leases for fracking operations have already approached OU’s Eastern campus, Dioguardi said.
“We haven’t been approached on other campuses because we need to get the classification done first,” she said.
According to the bill, state institutions are required to classify their land between one and four based on its “frackability” before any leases can be drafted. At level one, the land is considered completely available for hydraulic fracturing operations.
OU’s Athens campus is currently classified as level two, which means as of now it is unable to be leased, Dioguardi said.
“Level two is very vague. It may be possible to drill and it may not,” Dioguardi said. “Part of House Bill 133 requires us to move out of level two and into level one if possible.”
The mineral rights committee does not have enough information and research to say that fracking will be completely safe, said committee member Steve Scanlan, who is also an OU associate professor specializing in environmental sociology.
“Hydraulic horizontal fracking is relatively new. We simply just don’t know (the environmental impacts), and that was our rational for a moratorium right now,” Scanlan said. “There are opportunities for research and OU could be a part of that, but we would rather look at other cases in Pennsylvania and Europe before we explore here.”
Golding said that the committee needs to move forward with drafting a lease if the university plans to allow hydraulic fracturing activities.
“If we’re going to do a lease, we can’t wait until our June 20 board meeting to initiate that process,” Golding said. “That’s the pressure we’re under.”
If the board passes the resolution allowing OU to draft its own lease, they requested that they review and approve the lease after it is penned.
“We want to make sure that (the board) is part of the conversation,” said board member Janetta King. “That is something that is very important to us.”
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