Luke Beekman from Mansfield, Ohio is working with a group called Mohican Advocates, aiming to defend the state park that has that name as well as the Malabar Farm State Park. He was in Columbus on Jan 10 building a mailing list and gathering signatures for a moratorium on fracking.
“The moratorium is basically saying ‘stop immediately all the fracking and all the waste water injection wells until there’s a proven safe way to extract the natural resources.’”
He said once the water is poisoned, there is no turning back.
“It’s a concern for us in the Mansfield area because there is a waste water injection well already under construction under Lahm Airport. We’re really concerned about the Mansfield area, but the state park areas are what we’re looking to keep as pristine as possible. Malabar and Mohican are very much treasures,” Beekman said.
He said the parks are side by side and part of a five county area that benefits from tourism. He said officials may soon lease the parks to companies wanting to frack there and that the recent push for fracking by natural gas companies results from greed, not necessity.
“This is a matter of a monopoly. The gears of large companies are in motion and they’re not going to stop because they have a hand in politics at this point. We need to show that the people of Ohio are going to stand up and say that we’re the ones who own these parks.”
He said demonstrations calling for a moratorium on fracking have been well attended in Youngstown.
"They’re a model for standing up and defending their rights,” Beekman said. "About 3 out of 4 people have no idea what fracking is, yet the state of Ohio has approved it.”
Beekman estimates about 1 in 8 of those who do know about fracking support it.
“They say, ‘Frack ’em. We need the industry. We need the money.’ But people are blind when it comes to just looking at the money. It does come down to monopoly. Because the way they are extracting it is not benefiting the local people.”
He said the natural gas companies stand to reap huge profits at the expense of the general community.
“They ( the natural gas companies) are able to control that resource, either in a way that they’re able to export it or store it themselves in a way that we’re probably going to be looking at an inflation of prices of natural gas.”
Beekman said the natural gas companies are misinforming people about how fracking will help keep natural gas affordable for household consumers.
“They’re saying ‘we’re going to make energy cheaper for you, because if we can do this in your backyard, then you’re going to have it.' But it’s not for people in their own backyard. If it were, people would be able to do it on a smaller scale. We’re looking at large scale fracking as a way to export and make large profits. If anything, this will drive up price inflation, because they will control the market."
Beekman encourages people to visit Mohican State Park and Malabar Farm State Park.
“If you can’t make it to a demonstration, just go there and enjoy the parks for what they are and show support to the local businesses there. The restaurants and the small towns need that business to show that tourism is thriving and that fracking doesn’t need to be the thing that comes in and supports it and pretends to save the parks, because it won’t. It will destroy them.”
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