Editorial Attacks Anti-Drillers Pushing Youngstown Oil & Gas Ban for Putting Lipstick on a Pig
From the Youngstown Vindicator:
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Opponents of fracking in Youngstown are hoping the lipstick they’ve put on the pig – the proposed charter amendment in Tuesday’s primary election – will fool the voters.
We hope it doesn’t.
Youngstown residents have said “no” on six separate occasions to the group of self-appointed paragons of environmental virtue pushing an amendment to the Youngstown Home Rule Charter to ban fracking.
We have long characterized the effort as a nonissue because there are no plans by any energy companies to drill for oil and gas in the city by use of hydraulic fracturing.
Nonetheless, the anti-frackers, led by Ray and Susie Beiersdorfer, have adopted the attitude that they alone know what’s in the best interest of Youngstown residents.
But it is revealing that the defeat of the anti-fracking charter amendment going back to the 2013 primary election has prompted the Beiersdorfers and their cohorts to change their strategy. They’re now using scare tactics.
The issue was on the primary and general election ballots in 2013 and 2014, and the general elections of 2015 and 2016.
In those years, it was called the “Community Bill of Rights” in support of their argument that the rights of Youngstown residents are being usurped by outside entities.
This year, however, the issue carries the ominous title “Drinking Water Protection Bill of Rights” (the lipstick on the pig). The claim underlying the title is clear: Fracking in Youngstown will poison the city’s water.Click here to read the whole editorial.
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