John Heer, Esq.
Fair Shake is proud to announce that we have hired John Heer, Esq., our newest attorney devoted to needs in Ohio and West Virginia! Thanks to support from the 11th Hour Project, John will be able to provide an estimated 1400 hours of free legal services individuals and organizations in communities impacted by oil & gas extraction, petrochemical manufacturing and related issues. Since 2013, we have been working with individuals and organizations who are fighting for the place that they call home. John’s position helps us do that for a region that is largely unrepresented and economically disadvantaged.
The Impacts
Former industrial park near of Warren, OH, which was once home to a booming steel industry.
At first, our clients called us about air, water, soil, human and animal health and welfare issues related to shale gas extraction. Then we started to receive requests for representation for the same impacts, but related to the gathering lines, the compressor stations and waste and wastewater transport and disposal. The natural gas-fired power plants were next. People called us about the siting and land use implications of those plants, the potential to both limit impacts and gain benefits from proposals for energy development in small townships and municipalities, and the best way to engage in planning processes to proactively address future proposals. All of those calls continue to come in, but now we’re also getting requests for representation related to the impacts from immense infrastructure that come from processing natural gas byproducts, or petrochemicals: ethylene, propylene, butylenes, benzene, toluene, xylenes. These natural gas liquids can be combined to form everything from single use plastics to fertilizers.
Site of the future Shell Ethane Cracker in Monaca, PA (photo from FracTracker)
Company names familiar from local gas stations and oil production in the Gulf of Mexico are suddenly appearing in the Ohio River Valley from just north of Pittsburgh all the way down the Mississippi River. Fast-paced proposals for pipelines and cracker plants and power plants and petrochemical facilities are advancing prior to community engagement and decision-making. Community-based discussions about impacts and decision-making along the routes of new infrastructure are largely muffled by government and industry. The idea of investment in communities and the spectacle of jobs overshadows any discussion about what community members believe is important in the face of newly proposed development.
In dedicating an attorney to these communities, we aim to tip the scales in a new direction.
A community-led approach
A community meeting in Cadiz, OH about Pipelines and Property Rights (Nov. 2019)
For generations, the Ohio River Valley’s communities have been overburdened by industrial pollution. Many communities in the Ohio River Valley are impacted by both legacy and current pollution sources and those impacts disproportionately take a tool on low income and minority communities. The petrochemical industry is threatening to worsen the cumulative impacts in proposing to centralize its gas-to-plastics storage and processing operations to those same environmental justice communities.
We know that communities in the Ohio River Valley are filled with strong-minded and strong-willed individuals who have engaged Fair Shake to protect the place that they love.
In his role as Staff Attorney, John will provide planning, consulting, counsel and litigation services to grassroots groups and individuals who seek to have a say in how much they and their community have to endure.
The right attorney for the job
Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, John began his thirty-year legal career as an associate attorney with a major Cleveland law firm. Since then, John has practiced for several major firms in the Cleveland/Akron area, working on environmental compliance, regulatory and transactional counseling, and civil and administrative litigation. Part of his legal career was spent as in-house counsel for an international home appliance manufacturing company, where he had responsibility for all regulatory issues arising in North America, including sustainability, chemical management, electronic waste recycling and management.
John’s work at Fair Shake will build on his regulatory and compliance experience to help communities in the Ohio River Valley protect the places they love.
We appreciate The 11th Hour Project’s interest in supporting grassroots organizations, loosely associated organizations and individuals in making sure that they have access to legal counsel to pursue legal action to challenge these developments throughout the environmental justice communities of the Ohio River Valley.
Could your community use this support?
If you think your community would benefit from working with John and you are located in Ohio or West Virginia please fill out this form and we will get back to you!
Unfortunately, we do have limited capacity and we will not be able to provide this service to everyone who requests it. We will be making our decisions based Census and EPA data and providing our services to those who are most in need. Thank you for your understanding.
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