Niles council rescinds anti-fracking ordinance

NILES

City council unanimously repealed its ordinance banning oil and gas drilling in the city limits before a council chamber packed with anti-drilling advocates pleading for council to keep the ban and labor unions encouraging its repeal.

“The oil and gas industry has put money in our pockets and we support economic development,” Don Crane, president of the Western Reserve Building and Construction Trades Council, said at Wednesday night’s meeting. “You don’t want to scare off companies.”

Council had passed the ordinance, known as the “Community Bill of Rights,” on Aug. 21 after learning about possible plans for a hydraulic fracturing or fracking operation in a Robbins Avenue neighborhood.

Council members, however, began changing their minds after hearing from industry representatives that the neighborhoods did not contain sufficient acreage to set up a well for shale drilling.

There were also constitutional questions about the ban since state law gives authority to issue drilling permits only to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

John Williams, a Niles resident active in fighting drilling in the city, said that he intends to start a petition immediately to put the Community Bill of Rights on the ballot in Niles next spring.

For the complete story, read Thursday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.