An Ohio Energy Summit

ZANESVILLE, Ohio –  The energy sector is the state’s third largest industry and Ohio is taking measures to keep America’s energy supply abundant and affordable.

U.S. Senator Jon Husted and U.S. Congressman Troy Balderson made a quick stop in Zanesville to talk to area energy producers about measures that can be taken to decrease the obstacles that are preventing or delaying current and future energy development.

“We had a roundtable with a lot of the energy producers here in this state,” Husted said. “As you know the local economy really benefits from having oil and gas producers and all of the downstream investments that they make here. Everything from the people who get jobs as a result of it to the pipelines to the producers. All of those create a lot of jobs for this part of the state but they also provide energy to the rest of the state, which helps us keep our prices reasonable.”

The meeting centered around permitting reforms, which would ultimately streamline the permitting process to speed up developments and investments.   

“So there was not only oil and gas producers here but there were also refineries representation here,” Balderson said. “Pipeline representation were here to represent but just talking about energy and… I think you know for this meeting from the standpoint that we… there was really nothing that we dove into directly. It was very broad… but just you know, talking about the demand that’s out there.”

As a rustbelt state, Ohio leaders are focused on bringing jobs back and see that the ability to provide a stable and affordable energy supply is a major incentive for businesses that are looking to relocate and expand.