Ohio House members took up a bill this year that would have opened public parks to oil and gas drilling, effectively circumventing Gov. John Kasich’s moratorium on hydraulic fracturing on public land. Lawmakers amended the bill to exclude state parks and nature preserves from drilling, but did not exempt other public lands — state forests, Metropark systems, and other local parks.

House lawmakers passed the measure, unanimously. If the Senate does not protect all public land from drilling, the governor must be ready to veto the bill.

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The bill deals with Ohio’s “unitization” system — the process that allows landowners to aggregate their properties for resource extraction. Current law allows oil and natural-gas pools to be opened up for drilling if the owners of 65 percent of the land lying over them agree.

Some property owners complain that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources often moves too slowly, or not at all, on unitization requests. The House-passed bill would require ODNR to hold a hearing on a request within 45 days, and to make a decision within 30 days of the hearing.

Lawmakers’ failure to include exceptions in the bill for regional parks and other public lands appears to have been more a matter of neglect than deliberate sabotage. No one spoke up for local parks in committee hearings before the measure was passed, and some lawmakers say they weren’t aware of the bill’s deficiencies before they voted for it.

These claims invite skepticism. Environmental groups had criticized the measure’s threats to public land, even after lawmakers added the language to protect state parks and nature preserves. In any case, the Senate can, and should, broaden the bill to protect all public land from drilling.

The broader intent of the bill — to speed up oil extraction in Ohio — also is of questionable merit. Emerging evidence directly ties fracking to earthquakes, in Ohio and across the country.

Fracking was responsible for dozens of earthquakes near Youngstown, according to a report by the Seismological Society of America. New York has placed a moratorium on fracking, citing safety and environmental hazards. Oklahoma’s government, which long denied the dangers of fracking, recently conceded a link between fracking and earthquakes.

Governor Kasich’s administration claims Ohio has some of the toughest fracking regulations in the country. Yet our state lags behind others in testing fracking wastewater for radiation and toxic chemicals. The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the state’s right to ban cities from banning, or even regulating, fracking.

The case for a ban on fracking in Ohio has not been made. But the governor was right to decline to expand fracking to public land during his first term.

Now, senators must act to protect public land that has been set aside for Ohioans to enjoy. Unless they do, the bill will deserve the governor’s veto.

First Published May 25, 2015, 4:00 a.m.