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Regular Council Meeting Minutes <br />6-15-09 <br />Page 29 <br />Mayor Rinker said that is good to know that timetable. We definitely would want that. <br />We appreciate that. <br />Senator Grendell said at some point we would love to have you come down and testify. <br />When this thing gets into hearings, we are trying to get folks to tell them the way it is. This is a <br />phenomena to Northeast Ohio unfortunately. While there are some wells being drilled as you go <br />down to the East end of the State into the Southeast area, the fact is, their economy is such that <br />they are happy ior any economic development and the oil and gas wells axe considered <br />significant economic development. We have a different phenomena. First of all, the shelf of the <br />gas is up here. It is just north of Akron and east of Cleveland. We are in the heart, so we are <br />getting a lot of the wells. But we have a different phenomena. This is residential neighborhoods <br />and it has greater impact. <br />When this thing passed, it was 84-15 in the House. The 15 were those of us who lived in <br />Northeast Ohio and were screaming bloody murder. We saw the train coming and we didn't <br />want our constituents to be run over and frankly we didn't want to be standing in the tracks when <br />it happened. But if you are from Cincinnati, or Napoleon, Ohio and Lakewood or Cleveland or <br />Columbus, you don't care about this issue. Nobody's drilling wells there because you don't have <br />any oil and gas to drill for. So, it's not as big of an issue for them, so it's harder to get them fired <br />up. That's why the Bainbridge incident actually was, he does not want to say helpful, because it <br />sounds kind of cold, but it raised people's awareness, because when you blow people's houses <br />up, suddenly people get concerned. <br />Dr. Parker asked, if it's not such a big issue, then why do they care? Why resist this? If <br />it really doesn't affect them to put this type of legislation, or corrections to this legislation, why <br />would they care then? <br />Senator Grendell replied, he will answer to you in two ways. The official answer that <br />was given was that this will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce the cost of natural <br />gas in Ohio. If you believe that, Senator Grendell has a bridge to sell you right down at the <br />Wilson Mills hill. But that was the official statement. <br />Senator Grendell will tell you the Tim Grendell opinion. There's a lot of money being <br />spread by the oil and gas association around Columbus which is making it an issue of interest for <br />people who don't have wells in their District. There are some reports that the oil and gas <br />association has spent an upward of $200,000.00 in campaign contributions from the last cycle in <br />Columbus. He cannot verify that. He knows the number is significant, he does not know if it is <br />that high. So they have no dog in the fight, and they don't want to be unfriendly to those who <br />have been friendly to them. That makes it even more difficult to the other dog in the fight. If it <br />was in your District, you would be more concerned. It's just wrong. Oil and gas wells in <br />residential neighborhoods in his opinion, unless you want them, is wrong. It doesn't make sense. <br />And by the way, it didn't lower the gas price and it sure as heck hasn't changed our dependency <br />on foreign oil and most of these wells are generally gas-driven wells. We have some oil but the <br />real issue is the gas.