On January 5, 2023, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill into law that forces state agencies to grant applications for oil and gas drilling on state lands. The law amends a 2011 state law that gave agencies the ability to decide whether or not to lease state lands for drilling, updating the language to say that the agency “shall” accept lease applications that meet appropriate criteria.
The bill also legally redefines natural gas as “green energy,” a characterization that Cinnamon Carlarne, the Robert J. Lynn Chair in Law at the Ohio State University, decries as “regressive and a fallacy… [and] a little bit Orwellian.” Pete Bucher, interim president for the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) Action Fund, criticized the bill as “further[ing] fossil fuel misinformation campaigns, . . . a nationwide effort to delay climate action and the transition to a truly clean energy future.”
When asked by reporters, Governor DeWine declined to comment on the legislation.