Some Choices We Have

We welcome creative thinking beyond these choices.

Protect ourselves and our neighbors for the oncoming boom

  • We can take photos of our homes, get our homes evaluated so we can demonstrate what its value was before any drilling occurs close to us
  • We can get our water tested (if we have a private water well)
  • If we live in a city, we can urge our town council to protect our water supply as Garrettsville has done
  • We can refuse to lease land or sign pipeline easements
  • If our land has an existing lease, we can research it to find out exactly what it says
  • We can educate our neighbors about all the above

Working with our state and federal government to better regulate the fossil fuel industry

  • The Ohio Environmental Council. The Ohio Environmental Council was created in 1969 on the strength of individuals and continues more than 40 years later because of individuals and groups who work together to protect and restore Ohio's natural resources and beauty.   Our experts work daily to restore, protect, and strengthen the quality of life for families and communities—from the air we breathe and the water we drink to the food we eat and natural resources we enjoy.    Using legislative initiatives, legal action, scientific principles, and statewide partnerships, we secure a healthier environment for Ohio's families and communities.

Working for various kinds of bans

Working to gain our rights to decide how we want to live in our communities

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund:  "We believe that we are in the midst of an escalating ecological crisis, and that the crisis is the result of decisions made by a relatively few people who run corporations and government. We believe that sustainability will never be achieved by leaving those decisions in the hands of a few – both because of their belief in limitless economic production and because their decisions are made at a distance from the communities experiencing the impact of those decisions. Therefore, we believe that to attain sustainability, a right to local self-government must be asserted that places decisions affecting communities in the hands of those closest to the impacts. That right to local self-government must enable communities to reject unsustainable economic and environmental policies set by state and federal governments, and must enable communities to construct legal frameworks for charting a future towards sustainable energy production, sustainable land development, and sustainable water use, among others. In doing so, communities must challenge and overturn legal doctrines that have been concocted to eliminate their right to self-government, including the doctrines of corporate constitutional rights, preemption, and limitations on local legislative authority. Inseparable from the right to local self government - and its sole limitation - are the rights of human and natural communities; they are the implicit and enumerated  premises on which local self government must be built."

Moving Away From Fossil Fuels

  • Environmental Law and Policy Center has put together a document describing the Ohio Wind and Solar Supply Chain
  • 350.org 350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Our online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries.  350 means climate safety. To preserve our planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current levels of 400 parts per million to below 350 ppm. But 350 is more than a number—it's a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.  One of the campaigns is divestment.  If you belong to a church, or graduated from a college, or you have your own investments, you can ask the organization to stop investing in fossil fuels.
  • Greentown Labs.  Greentown Labs provides prototyping space, a machine shop, electronics lab, office space and an event space. We leverage our facility, partners, and sponsors to provide our entrepreneurs access to the equipment, services, education, and network they need to launch their companies quickly.
  • Rocky Mountain Institute.   RMI’s vision is a world thriving, verdant, and secure, for all, for ever.  Our mission is to drive the efficient and restorative use of resources.  APPLICATION IN THE REAL WORLD.  RMI's style is non-adversarial and trans-ideological, emphasizing integrative design, advanced technologies, and mindful markets. Our strategic focus, executed through specific initiatives designed to take our work rapidly to scale, is to map and drive the transition from coal and oil to efficiency and renewables. We work extensively with the private sector, as well as with civil society and government, to create abundance by design and to apply the framework of natural capitalism.
  • Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation.  LEEDCo is a regional non-profit and economic development organization building an offshore wind energy industry in Ohio.