The Ohio Department of Natural Resources was set to see a cash influx of more than $30 million in additional royalty payments stemming from licensing companies to frack on state park lands.
However, according to reports, the updated iteration of House Bill 96, the state’s biennial spending plan, would instead use that money for the agency’s existing operating budget, and critics said state parks might not see the cash again if Ohio’s revenues change.
The Senate’s spending plan includes General Revenue Fund appropriations of roughly $89.7 billion for the biennium, less than the House’s budget version. In total, the budget is $201 billion for the two years.
Statehouse News Bureau public radio reported that the budget would cut park funding by 50% in fiscal 2026 and 13% in fiscal 2027.
“It’s moving the royalties generated from fracking on public lands, which are, by the way, public lands,” Statehouse News Bureau quoted Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland. “They don’t belong to ODNR. They belong to the people of the state of Ohio.”
Republican lawmakers had previously said the move would strengthen tax revenues by making natural gas more accessible, Statehouse News Bureau reported. However, critics derided the move, saying it would harm the Buckeye State’s natural resources.
“Any time you lose [General Revenue Fund money], it’s awful hard to get it back,” Statehouse News Bureau quoted Matt Misicka, executive director of the Ohio Conservation Federation. “Oil, gas, these are finite resources for any given well, right?”
Statehouse News Bureau reported that Cirino disputed the assertion.
“We’re in the thick of it right now, where justifications can be made for additions to GRF [General Revenue Funds], we’re doing it all the time, so I think that’s a false narrative,” Statehouse News Bureau quoted Cirino.
In January 2023, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 507, which lessened the hurdles drilling companies needed to overcome to secure leases. It updated a 2011 law that effectively legalized drilling under state parks by allowing state agencies to decide whether to lease state lands for drilling.
“While the bill initially involved agricultural issues, amendments were added regarding drilling and natural gas issues,” the governor said in a January 2023 statement announcing that he signed the bill. “As my administration has analyzed this bill, I believe the amendments in House Bill 507 do not fundamentally change the criteria and processes established by the Ohio General Assembly in 2011 that first established the policy of leasing mineral rights under state parks and lands.
“In addition, I am instructing the Director of the Department of Natural Resources to continue to follow the processes first established by the General Assembly in 2011 in this area,” the governor added. “This includes continuing my administration’s policy of prohibiting any new surface use access in our state parks.”
In December 2024, DeWine signed House Bill 308, which, in part, increased the standard oil and gas lease term for state land from three years to five years.
“We need to continue to frack, and allowing the extension of that is also important,” the Ohio Capital Journal quoted Ohio Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, as saying at the time.
However, not everyone agreed.
“This is perhaps the least popular thing that we will do in the entire General Assembly,” the Ohio Capital Journal quoted state Sen. Kent Smith, D-Euclid, as saying at the time. “Why are we extending the lease in this amendment again without public consideration?”
Energy is a major issue in Ohio. The company that operates transmission lines for Ohio and a dozen other states previously said “extreme scenarios featuring record demand” could require it “to call on contracted demand response resources to reduce electricity use.”
