No penalties for PR firm that put Ohioans names on pro-fracking letters without knowing consent [Video]

COLUMBUS, Ohio – 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 …