The Keep-It-In-The-Ground (KIITG) movement in Ohio has suffered yet another defeat. As EID recently reported, these activists recently called on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to hold a hearing and extend the public comment period regarding mineral leasing in Ohio’s Wayne National Forest (WNF), clearly in an effort to stall the decision. The deadline for public comment has been officially set for May 31^st, disappointing activists according to the Athens News.

KIITG’s demands were particularly ironic considering that these same groups were so disruptive at the last public hearing that BLM was forced to shut the meeting down early, negating the entire purpose for public input, and hijacking others from having the opportunity to engage.

This news comes just days after the White House also refused to meet the group’s “demands” of ending all fossil fuel development of federal lands.  As the White House put it in an answer to a KIITG petition:

“Even as we move full steam ahead towards cleaner energy, the United States will still need to use fossil fuels in the near term.” (emphasis added)

Not only that but U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, (who is the head of the Bureau of Land Management, as it falls under the Department of Interior) pointed out that the group’s goal of ending fossil fuels is “naïve”:

“There are many, many miles driven every day. We don’t yet have solar-powered cars. It’s going to take a very long time before we can wean ourselves from fossil fuels, so I think that to keep it in the ground is naïve, to say we could shift to 100 percent renewables is naïve.” (emphasis added)

It’s almost as if the extreme behavior by KIITG activists at BLM meetings in Utah and Ohio is an effort to distract folks from the fact that they are being strongly criticized, even by the White House itself.

Fortunately for Americans, while these protestors might make headlines periodically, they certainly do not represent the majority of the population that acknowledges natural gas is already a part of our country’s clean energy future.