No penalty for firm using real names on pro-fracking letters
COLUMBUS — Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost imposed no penalties on an oil and gas group operated out of a Houston public relations firm that ran a lobbying campaign using real Ohioans’ names, addresses and phone numbers on pro-fracking public letters without their knowing consent or knowledge.
After Cleveland.com/the Plain Dealer last year found dozens of people who said they never knowingly consented for their names to be used in the campaign, Yost vowed to investigate.
In March, Yost quietly closed that investigation with a letter criticizing the Consumer Energy Alliance’s tactics. But Yost’s office says the company did nothing illegal — something he says he wants to change via state rulemaking.
In the summer of 2023, the Consumer Energy Alliance delivered to the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission about 1,100 identical letters encouraging its members to allow fracking for natural gas in Salt Fork State Park. More than 50 of the purported writers said in later interviews they never wrote or knowingly allowed anyone to use their names on such a letter — including an elderly blind woman and a nine-year-old child.
“As you review the nominations for leasing state lands, like Salt Fork, I encourage you to remember the benefits responsibly leasing state land will provide,” the letters said.
Yost’s investigation found the means that the Consumer Energy Alliance, via a subcontractor, used to obtain the information on those letters acted as a “poor and inappropriate substitute for real consent and as a disservice to participatory engagement with government.”
Yost’s office hasn’t said whether it found a connection between a natural gas company that was bidding for the right to drill on public land and the Consumer Energy Alliance. The Consumer Energy Alliance hasn’t answered whether they were hired by a natural gas company for the campaign.
“Our job was to look and see if an Ohio law was violated,” said Yost spokesman Dominic Binkley. “It was determined no laws were broken.”
Several criticized Yost for allowing such a lenient outcome including the ranking Ohio House Democrat, the Ohio Environmental Council, a coalition of activists opposed to fracking in state parks, and the mother of the child whose name was used on one of the letters.
After Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer published interviews with dozens of the purported signatories saying they never wrote those letters or let anyone knowingly use their names, Yost said he would investigate the campaign of the Consumer Energy Alliance, a trade association operated from the offices of HBW Resources, a public relations firm. CEA’S president, David Holt, said at the time that the public comment process is an “essential part of participatory democracy and a complete airing of the facts in this situation and others like it is merited.”
Yost’s letter to the CEA in March states that the language used to solicit individuals’ “alleged consent” was vague; it didn’t disclose that they’d be signing a letter; and it didn’t provide the language of the letter until after receiving this person’s alleged consent.
Yost’s letter also says CEA “failed to fully understand and manage the activities” of its subcontractors. His press team provided the letter Tuesday morning when asked about the status of the investigation.
Yost Spokeswoman Bethany Mccorkle described the tactics as “sneaky, but not illegal.” She said Yost is pursuing a legal change to prohibit the practice but said he lacked jurisdiction to investigate who hired the PR firm to run the campaign, given no laws were broken.
The lobbying played out over rights to drill in Salt Fork, a gas reservoir some saw as a gold mine. West Virginia based Infinity Natural Resources ultimately won the bidding process, offering Ohio $58.4 million, plus 20% of the revenues it makes selling natural gas extracted from the land. Two others – Houston-based Encino Energy and Oklahoma-based Ascent Resources — submitted bids for the oil and gas beneath the park.
As Cleveland.com/the Plain Dealer previously reported, CEA aggregated information from would-be signers via websites offering COVID-19 relief checks, class action lawsuit settlement money, or free entry to lotteries for $1,000 or a free vacation.
CEA denied any allegations of wrongdoing at the time.
Bryson Hull, a vice president at HBW and spokesman for the CEA, said in emails and interviews in 2023 that “CEA does not falsify comments, does not use people’s names without their consent, and puts robust safeguards in place to ensure that any and all advocacy comments it submits are genuine.” Besides saying CEA would never use people’s names without their knowing consent, he added, “We don’t need to.”
Hull on Friday said he stood by those comments. Holt, CEA’S president, praised Yost’s work and cast blame on the “systems” used to solicit public comments.
“We take seriously the finding that CEA is responsible for ensuring its vendors comply with the letter and spirit of the law and, with the guidance of our Board, have instituted new controls to ensure this never happens again,” he said. “Public participation in the commenting process is an important element of American democracy. Unfortunately, the systems to solicit comments and signatures are wholly inadequate and in the digital era, prone to manipulation by bad actors.”
Many of the Cea-organized public comments are still available on the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission’s website. A text search for phrases used on the boilerplate letter brings more than 1,000 hits in the public comment portal. State officials said they would take down letters of those who reached out to them claiming their name was used without permission, but refused to take down the hundreds of identical copies of those letters.
Last year wasn’t the first time CEA’S tactics drew criticism. In 2014, CEA withdrew petitions supporting an electric hike submitted to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin after local media accused them of misrepresenting purported signatories. In 2016, they were accused of similar tactics in public comments before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission supporting a gas pipeline in Ohio, including sending a letter in the name of a dead man. And in 2018, they sent letters to South Carolina lawmakers opposing legislation that could kill a proposed utility company acquisition. (In the South Carolina case, CEA blamed its subcontractor.)
The CEA is a dark money nonprofit that does not have to disclose its funders. It reported $3.9 million in revenue last year, with $2.3 million going to HBW Resources. Its board is comprised of executives in oil, construction, steel and business. And its members include a long list of oil and gas companies.
Chris Tavenor, general counsel for the Ohio Environmental Coalition, said Yost failed to hold accountable whomever deployed these “deceptive practices” to sway the opinion of state officials. And he noted that since this campaign, Ohio has sold off mineral rights under Salt Fork State Park, Valley Run Wildlife Area, Zepernick Wildlife Area, and Keen Wildlife Area.
“There are clearly missing links that are still worth investigating — who paid for these fake comments? And why?” Tavenor said. “If no penalties are pursued against these companies, what message does that send to other companies about tactics they can employ to attempt to influence policy in Ohio? Ohioans deserve answers.”
House Minority Leader Allison Russo, a Columbus-area Democrat, said the investigation gives the sense of a cursory review of the Consumer Energy Alliance without asking the bigger question of who hired them.
“To me, having a company that has fraudulently used individual Ohioans’ identities without their permission seems illegal. Certainly seems like they should get more than a sternly worded letter,” she said.
Yost’s office noted it has proposed a new rule that would change Ohio’s consumer protection laws to include as a “deceptive act” the practice of using a consumer’s signature for “a purpose not clearly and specifically disclosed in the solicitation.” Holt, from CEA, said he supports this idea.
Save Ohio Parks, a coalition of environmental activists opposed to fracking in state parks, were the first to notice something afoul in the public comments last summer.
One of the letters was affixed with the name Briella Keep, who was 9 years old at the time.
Brittany Keep expressed disappointment in Yost’s investigation.
“I’m shocked they closed it with no wrongdoing in the matter,” she said. “I’m not sure how they can proceed with no action knowing that signatures were obtained without actually explaining why the signatures were being obtained.”