Each year in late January, the Ohio Farmers Union holds its annual convention and outlines its main policy priorities for the coming year. These priorities are debated in OFU’s policy committee and by all delegates on the floor of the convention. This past weekend the 80th Annual Ohio Farmers Union Convention was held in Columbus. Here are OFU’s Special Orders of Business for 2014.
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Special Orders of Business
Ohio Farmers Union
As Passed by the 80th Annual Convention, Columbus, Ohio
February 2014
Shale Gas Exploration & Production in Rural Ohio
The extraction of oil and natural gas from shale formations such as the Marcellus and Utica formations presents enormously complex technical challenges, consumes large volumes of fresh water and requires the use of a wide array of hazardous chemicals. Farmers Union urges caution in the development of such fossil fuel resources, as doing so will slow our progress toward renewable fuels and accelerate climate change.
OFU proposes the following policy recommendations in order to protect Ohio’s farmland, water and air from contamination associated with the drilling or hydraulic fracturing of production wells or from contamination associated with waste disposal of hazardous by-products from the process:
