To the Editors:

A big “thank you” to the Review’s Production Editor Eliza Guinn for last Friday’s front page story “Court Rules Against Construction in Ohio City, Gives Oberlin Hope” (The Oberlin Review, Dec. 1, 2017) about the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that has blocked the construction of the NEXUS pipeline through Green, Ohio. As her article points out, Oberlin has also filed a case against NEXUS and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to keep NEXUS from threatening the safety of Oberlinians. Though this fact was not included in the article, a local grassroots organization, Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy, drafted the Community Bill of Rights and Obligations Ordinance in 2013. This document prohibits the construction of fracking infrastructure such as NEXUS within the Oberlin city limits. Members of Oberlin College Anti-Frack — now called Students for Energy Justice — helped CSSE pass that ordinance in 2013. They also helped with the CSSE-backed ordinance in this November’s election that saved the city’s Sustainable Reserve Fund for its intended purpose. Both CSSE and the City of Oberlin have filed numerous protests with FERC against the awarding of a permit to NEXUS. Going forward, the CSSE and the SEJ will continue working together to build resistance in Oberlin to this economically and environmentally unsustainable venture.

– John D. Elder
OC ’53
Vice President, Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy