The Ohio Oil and Gas Association has come out in opposition to Issue 1, the ballot initiative that aims to depoliticize how voting districts are drawn in Ohio and end partisan gerrymandering. 

“During its September meeting, OOGA’s Board of Trustees voted to OPPOSE Issue 1,” an Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) document posted with the group’s online 2024 election guide said.

OOGA’s Board of Trustees includes more than forty individuals representing companies involved in the oil and gas industry, including Ariel Corporation, Blackrock Resources, CNX Resources, Enbridge, Energy Transfer, EOG Resources, EQT Corporation, Gulfport Energy, Knox Energy, and Southwestern Energy, which merged with Chesapeake Energy earlier this year. 

“VOTE NO on Issue 1,” a banner positioned at the top of OOGA’s online election guide now says. 

OOGA’s opposition to Issue 1 puts the oil and gas industry association at odds with a majority of Ohio voters who plan to vote “Yes” on Issue 1, according to polling done by Bowling Green University in September. 

Partisan gerrymandering has enabled one-party rule by Republicans in Columbus. Republican state lawmakers have used their supermajorities in the Ohio House and Senate to enact controversial laws backed by OOGA and its members. 

Republican lawmakers passed House Bill 201 last year with support from OOGA. The new law allows gas utilities to charge Ohio customers millions of dollars annually to fund what H.B. 201 opponents like state senator Kent Smith, a Democrat, call pipelines to nowhere. 

In 2022, Republicans pushed through state legislation, House Bill 507, backed by OOGA to open up state parks to fracking for oil and gas. 

H.B. 507 also redefined methane gas, a fossil fuel, as “green energy” in Ohio. The move was backed by The Empowerment Alliance (TEA), a project of Republican megadonor couple Karen Buchwald Wright and Tom Rastin, whose family owns Ariel Corp. OOGA honored Buchwald Wright earlier this year with its Patriot Award. 

The OOGA document detailing the industry group’s opposition to Issue 1 links to the website of Ohio Works for more information. Ohio Works is a 501(c)(4) organization and ballot issue PAC that spent more than $1.7 million in September opposing Issue 1 and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, according to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings.   

The Energy and Policy Institute emailed a spokesperson for OOGA to ask if the industry group or its PAC has contributed any money to Ohio Works, which has yet to disclose any of its donors in campaign finance filings with the FEC and Ohio Secretary of State. OOGA had not responded at the time this blog was published.  Ohio Works’ website lists OOGA as a “No on 1 Team” member.

Top photo from a protest opposing fracking in Ohio’s Salt Fork State Park by Paul Becker from Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic License

Posted by Dave Anderson

Dave Anderson is the policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute. Dave has been working at the nexus of clean energy and public policy since 2008. Prior to joining the Energy and Policy Institute, he was an outreach coordinator for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He is also an alumnus of the Sierra Club and the Alliance for Climate Protection (now the Climate Reality Project). Dave’s research has helped to spur public scrutiny of political attacks on clean energy and climate science by powerful special interests, such as ExxonMobil and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). His work has been cited by major media outlets, such as CBS News and the Wall Street Journal, and he has served as a speaker on panels at national solar industry conferences. Dave holds a MA in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire, where he also received a BA in Humanities.

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