· January 18, 2013

IO Week in Review

Feel out of the loop? Here is your chance to catch up on the issues that matter and Innovation Ohio’s activities this week: Our Ohio fracking map is new and improved and more interactive. Stop by the map and search by county, type of well, or well operator to learn about where hydraulic fracking is happening in Ohio. Terra Goodnight covered the Ohio Senate Democrat’s announcement of their priority legislation for the 130th General Assembly. Economic development, election protection, and education funding reform were at the top of their list. IO’s Ron Sylvester wrote about Ohio PUCO Chairman Todd Snitchler and his carrying water for the natural gas industry at the expense of the renewable energy industry in Ohio.

Snitchler appears to be falling right into line with the Kasich/Oil and Gas industry line. It’s a shame, because they refer to oil and gas patches as “plays” for a reason. In ten, fifteen or 20 years Ohio will be played out. Natural gas will not be $3 forever. Snitchler inhabits an office that could be doing good for all of Ohio and the future by giving renewables their due.

We highlighted a non-partisan report that was released this week which showed that the Medicaid expansion in Obamacare would provide coverage to 456,000 currently uninsured Ohioans and actually create revenue for the state over the next ten years. Original analysis from IO showed that new horizontal wells in Ohio during 2012 came well under Department of Taxation estimates. We looked at the numbers and asked how this hampers the administration’s ability to pay for an income tax cut with severance tax revenue. More and more evidence is coming to light that Republican gerrymandering is the only way the GOP retained control of the U.S. House and in state legislatures around the country and they’re bragging about it. Finally, we released our original analysis of fracking permitting in Ohio during 2012 and looked at some of the implications from the data. Don’t forget to ‘like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to get up-to-the-minute analysis and commentary.