Ohio environmental advocates have filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Brian Chavez (R-Marietta), alleging he failed to disclose financial ties to at least five oil and gas companies in 2023 and 2024.
Submitted to the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee (JLEC) last Wednesday, the complaint by Washington County for Safe Drinking Water also claims that Chavez’s legislative committee assignments create direct conflicts of interest financially.
He is currently the chair of the Ohio Senate Energy Committee. He also owns a business that bids on government contracts to seal abandoned, or orphan, oil and gas wells.
Dawn Hewitt, Washington County for Safe Drinking Water treasurer, said in an interview Chavez stands to profit from Senate Bill 219 if it passes the Ohio House.
“If it were solely a matter of experience, that would be one thing,” Hewitt said Tuesday. “But what Chavez has is material gain from the policies he’s making and that’s wrong.”
SB 219 cleared the Senate floor in November. It would be an extensive overhaul of oil and gas laws, including those regulating orphan wells. Among its numerous measures, SB 219 would redirect injection well fees from the state Oil and Gas Well Fund to cities and counties where they come from.
John Fortney, the spokesperson for the Senate Majority caucus, wrote over text the claims in the complaint were “nothing more than a fabricated publicity stunt backed by out of state special interests that want to kill the oil and gas industry in Ohio.”
“Their work of fiction used the words ignorant and dishonest,” Fortney said Tuesday. “They should look in the mirror.”
Hewitt said only local and state groups have been involved. Buckeye Environmental Network, Save Ohio Parks and Sierra Club Ohio were among the dozen groups that cosigned the complaint.
“I am not aware of any, not even one, out-of-state person of any kind assisting with this complaint or the investigation,” she said.
Washington County for Safe Drinking Water, ideally, wants Chavez to be removed as Senate Energy chair. “And to really recuse himself on any legislation involving an injection well,” she said.
Six GOP lawmakers and six Democratic lawmakers serve on JLEC.
