EID's Shawn reports a recent flawed decision made by the Cincinnati City Council regarding oil and gas development:

"Last week Cincinnati City Council passed a resolution asking the state to allow Cincinnati to ban oil and gas development.  While it may appear to be politically proactive, it’s a move based not on any scientific facts (far from it). It’s also an issue the city and county will never have to worry about.

Prior to the City Council meeting, Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls and Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan held a news conference on the steps of City Hall. During the news conference Councilwoman Quinlivan stated “I believe local officials should have a say on all matters related to potentially hazardous activities such as fracking.”

Here are a few facts Vice Mayor Qualls, Councilwoman Quinlivan and their fellow collogues on the council need to have considered prior to making such a resolution, regardless of it’s actual relevance:

On Hydraulic Fracturing and Oil and Gas Development in Cincinnati:

•  There has never been a single producing well in Cincinnati or Harrison County

• There will never be any Utica Shale development in or near Hamilton County

• Hydraulic fracturing is not a new process.  It is a completion process that has been used safely and effectively in Ohio since 1953

• During its entire 60 year history there has not been a single confirmed case of groundwater contamination caused by the hydraulic fracturing process, a fact that has been noted by multiple studies, regulators across the United States and EPA Director Lisa Jackson.

• Without hydraulic fracturing the US would lose 45 percent of domestic natural gas production and 17 percent of our oil production within five years."

READ THE REST: http://www.eidohio.org/cincinnati-struggles-to-be-relevant-in-shale...