Local residents and environmental advocacy groups have responded with concern to a proposal to amend the language of the City’s Community Bill of Rights to allow Dominion Energy Ohio to build a gas connection to the proposed eco-industrial park. According to a March 12 memo from Oberlin’s Law Director Jon Clark, the pipeline would deliver natural gas to the park and enable it to receive financial support from the State of Ohio. The company has offered to build the pipeline without compensation from the City. 

Opposing the change are several local environmental groups. Students for Energy Justice has circulated an open letter urging Councilmembers to vote against changing the Community Bill of Rights’ language, which they perceive as weakening the City’s commitment to using alternative energy sources from natural gas. 

The Community Bill of Rights, officialized in the summer of 2013, bans local gas and oil extraction in the City. The measure was first tested when residents used it to advocate against the  installation of a portion of the NEXUS Gas Transmission pipeline — developed by Enbridge Inc. — within Oberlin. After being proposed in 2012, local environmental groups were embroiled in an attempt to prevent the pipeline’s construction until 2018. The City also challenged its construction in court until 2022. A portion of NEXUS Gas Transmission was ultimately built through Oberlin, according to former City Councilmember Kelley Singleton.

For College third-year Savannah Wright, a member of SEJ, the presence of Dominion Energy Ohio, which is owned by Enbridge Inc., is a concern. 

“It seems sketchy to me that [the City] would be working with a subsidiary of [Enbridge Inc.] which has disrespected our Community Bill of Rights and our City’s self-determination in the past,” Wright said. 

Holly Swiglo, College third-year and co-leader of the Oberlin Climate Coalition, conceded the possibility that natural gas might be the only power source possible for the park, but expressed the opinion that Council had more investigation to do.

“I’m still in the position that the City Council has not fully explored their options and fully considered renewable alternatives,” Swiglo said. “I would want them to vote to table or delay approving this ordinance, and then from there, really explore their options. If at that point they decide gas is inevitable, we’ll do with that what we will.”

Experts on the City’s energy supply stated that there is a limited amount of alternative and sustainable energy sources to fuel the industrial park. At the April 6 Council meeting, Drew Skolnicki, director of Oberlin’s Municipal Light and Power System, told the Council that Oberlin’s electric grid could not be sure of receiving enough capacity from the City’s electricity supplier to fuel the park after 2029 — making it potentially impossible for the industrial park to operate on electrical power alone.

Swiglo spoke of solar energy as another potential resource for the park and speculated that implementing solar energy power in other parts of Oberlin might add more capacity to the electric grid. According to City Manager Greg Holcomb, though, several renewable options for powering the park would face challenges.

“The wind studies in this area show that wind isn’t an overly feasible energy option in this area,” Holcomb said. “The other issue is if we’re talking about putting it on the site, we only have 225 acres. If we did solar, the entire park would [have to] be nothing but solar fields to supply enough electricity for one building, and so there’s no tax revenue from that, or very little compared to having employees actually in a facility, bringing in income taxes.”

As for geothermal technology, Holcomb said that it would not actually provide power, and that installation would be both highly expensive and potentially premature: Though the City could build geothermal infrastructure at the industrial park, a customer might not make use of it. 

Singleton, who spoke at the April 6 meeting, was critical of opposition that Oberlin students have raised to the use of natural gas at the park. He argued that the students’ sentiments should be tempered by their transient role within the town. He also argued that students lack the financial stakes invested in the town for their opinions to have much weight on the matter. In an interview, he noted that 47 percent of properties in Oberlin are exempt from property tax — including the College. 

“You have to look at it where someone who doesn’t pay toward property tax, [and] in some instances, no income tax either, [is] saying what we should do with our tax money,” Singleton said. “You didn’t contribute anything. Now it’s your say? You get to tell us what to do with our revenue, or how to collect revenue when you don’t provide any?”

On the other hand, Kate Pilacky, local resident and land manager for the Oberlin Preserve, expressed concern about the construction of a pipeline at the April 6 meeting, noting that the line would be adjacent to five vernal pools — which are seasonal wetlands — on its path underneath the Ramsey right-of-way. In an interview with the Review, Pilacky said that previous construction on the right-of-way had enlarged one vernal pool to nearly three times its prior size, while another pool now loses water too quickly to allow infant frogs and salamanders in the pool to metamorphosize.

Pilacky clarified that she did not speak on behalf of her employers, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, of which the Oberlin Preserve is a part.

At their April 6 meeting, Council approved the ordinance for a third reading by a 4–3 vote. Councilmember Kristen Peterson, who voted to advance the ordinance, cited her tenure as a member of the Municipal Electric Association to assert that a facility like the eco-industrial park being entirely powered by renewable energy was still not feasible due to limitations in the available technology.

“At every single conference, at every single meeting, it is always mentioned that there still has to be a balance [between renewable energy and natural gas],” Peterson said. “In the eyes of the professionals in the electric industry, being 100 percent electric is more than just a big challenge.”

On the other side of the vote, Councilmember Jessa D. New, OC ’01, was concerned that the ordinance would be taking unnecessary premature action considering the stakes involved.

“I am not convinced that we need this [ordinance] by any means right now,” New said. “I think we are being pushed into a decision that we don’t need to make at this moment.”

Council is next set to have a final vote on the ordinance on Monday.