Judge Tosses Case Over Ohio’s Allowance of Public Land Fracking

An Ohio judge ruled against environmentalists who sued the state to block a law requiring agencies to lease oil and gas resources, including those beneath state parks, for drilling and fracking.

The groups didn’t show that they and their members had standing to challenge the law and seek a ruling that it’s unconstitutional, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Kimberly Cocroft wrote Monday. That’s especially true because the law was codified by state officials in administrative rules that are now in effect and “no longer poses a threat to Plaintiffs and their members,” said Cocroft, who took more than two years ...