Fracking debate heats up

Lisa Kochheiser (Photo: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune)

Bowling Green City Council was warned Tuesday evening that a city ordinance banning fracking will do little to protect the community. But city officials are standing firmly behind their assertions that a city ordinance would be far better than a charter amendment.
Neither side wants fracking in the city. But they can't agree on the best way to prevent the process.
Lisa Kochheiser, of the FreshWater Accountability Project, told council that ordinances can be side-stepped.
"Ordinances by themselves just aren't enough to stop oil and gas companies from drilling in communities," Kochheiser said. She talked about the experience of Broadview Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, where she said a city ordinance was passed to ban fracking efforts. Despite the ordinance, 90 vertical wells were drilled and fracked in the city limits, she said.