The rest would come from unspecified budget cuts. Increasing natural gas prices have state officials wondering whether to lift Ohio's ban on offshore drilling in Lake Erie. On Wednesday, Ohio's House Public Utilities Committee will discuss Lake Erie as a drilling target. Thursday, at the Ohio Oil and Gas Association's annual winter meeting, a state geologist will present a report estimating how much natural gas may be available under the lake. Canada allows drilling for gas beneath its part of the lake.
Environmentalists promise to revive an anti-drilling fight.
Gas wells can spew brine and oil that are naturally trapped in the same sandstone and shale beds that contain natural gas. Some conservationists worry the drilling, and the pipelines that connect underwater well heads to the mainland, could damage lake-bottom habitat. The department's latest report on drilling in Lake Erie estimates that the Ohio part of the Central Basin could produce an amount roughly 20 percent of the amount currently produced by Ohio's gas fields on land.