Green groups sue to stop Ohio from leasing state parks for oil and gas drilling

Mike DeWine, the Ohio governor, signed the law into the statute book in January. Photograph: Alan Freed/Reuters

Environmental groups have launched a last-minute effort to halt an extraordinary new law in Ohio that requires government agencies to lease state parks and other public state lands to the oil and gas industry.

A temporary injunction filed on Thursday seeks to put the brakes on legislation that requires state parks to be leased for fracking and which redefines the potent greenhouse gas methane as “green energy”. The law was due to go into effect on 7 April, but the court has not yet responded to the injunction.