Ron Prosek - President of the Network for Oil& Gas Accountability and Protection
Ron Prosek is a graduate of Cleveland State University with an M.A. in English, Ron is Vice-President of the Network for Oil& Gas Accountability and Protection (NEOGAP).
He has taught English and computer science on secondary and college levels.
An active environmentalist for more than two decades, Ron was part of a group that saved the Mentor Lagoons from private condo development and succeeded in having it made into a city-owned nature preserve in 1997.
He is currently chairman of the Mentor Lagoons Preservation Committee. He has also co-authored a book on the history of Mentor called Mentor—A Retrospective.
Ron first became involved in oil and gas drilling issues in 2008 when a gas drilling rig suddenly appeared 100 feet from the Deepwood Apartments in his hometown of Mentor, an apartment complex housing many elderly people in frail health.
He complained to City Hall that allowing a drilling rig in this location was an obvious violation of the city's zoning regulations. He was told that the City could do nothing because the state had removed all local control over oil and gas drilling in 2004 with HB 278.
Now he is working with NEOGAP to help Ohioans understand the threats posed by the fracking of deep shale and to help Ohio communities organize to protect themselves from these threats.