We don’t want coal for Christmas
We all want to give good gifts to our children, especially during the holidays.The best gift we can give them is a healthy life on a livable planet. Save Ohio Parks knows Gov. Mike DeWine, lawmakers and the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission have children and want to give good gifts to them, too.But fracking under our state parks and public lands is a curse, not a gift.Oil and gas production causes childhood cancers, asthmas, low thyroid, and low birth weights in babies living near a well pad. Fracking drains freshwater lakes and streams and converts our water into toxic and radioactive wastewater. It’s stored in underground injection wells, which leak and endanger our drinking supply. Methane gas from gas production traps heat in the atmosphere, accelerating planet warming.Will we see snow this Christmas? Ohio is still in a drought. And this summer, Columbus experienced 36 days of 90-degree-plus weather — one-third of the summer.
Our Christmas wish: that you learn about fracking harms and set policy and law that ramp up honest green energy. It can supply the power Ohio needs to keep future generations healthy and our public lands pristine.Melinda Zemper, Save Ohio Parks Steering Committee, West Chester
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio keeps giving us coal not healthy parks for Christmas | Letter