Ryan wows Republican crowd in Stark
Likely GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan drew a capacity crowd of about 2,400 people to Walsh University in North Canton this morning.

Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, described the presidential race as a stark contrast between two visions of government, and says he and Mitt Romney have a plan to bring back the economy. Ryan is the architect of a House GOP budget that proposes supplanting Medicare with vouchers for private insurance. He says that’s a way to save the insurance program for older Americans and insisted, “we will win this debate.”

Democrats say Ryan and Romney are willing to devastate programs that benefit the middle class in favor of tax cuts for wealthy people. 

Another GM plant gets new life
One of Northeast Ohio’s shuttered GM plants is expected to be redeveloped into an industrial site with multiple tenants.

A trust for the old GM stamping plant outside Mansfield agreed yesterday (Wednesday) to sell the facility to a company called Brownfield Communities Development of Miami, Fla.  According to the Mansfield News Journal, Brownfield plans to demolish about half the plant, and convert a million square feet into industrial space for two companies with an estimated employment of 1,100 people in five years.

The town of Ontario will still have to negotiate a development deal with the company, and more details on the project are expected to be announced at a press conference at 1 this afternoon.

Chesapeake prepares to close its auction on Ohio leases
Chesapeake Energy is expected to close bids tomorrow on about one quarter of its shale-drilling leases in eastern Ohio.

Chesapeake has been one of the biggest players in Ohio’s drilling boom. But it’s run into big cash flow problems and announced earlier  this summer it is selling its rights to nearly 350,000 acres in 19 eastern Ohio counties. Those include properties in Summit, Wayne, Portage, Trumbull and Geauga.

Chesapeake says it picked those areas because drilling there is not as concentrated as it is in areas such as Stark, Carroll and Columbiana.

Nearly all of the leases lock landowners into current contracts regardless of whether Chesapeake or someone else owns them.

Fracking releases gas and oil from deep layers of shale. Natural gas prices have hit record lows, but Chesapeake says theOhio leases are attractive because Ohio’s shale is rich with oil and liquid natural gases as well.

Environmentalists want Ohio to beef up disposal rules
Meanwhile, environmental groups say Ohio’s new rules to dispose of the chemical-waste water left over from shale drilling are weak.

Ohio as nearly 200 deep wells to dispose of the drilling fluid, and some have been linked to earthquakes.

The groups filed their protests yesterday, responding to new regulations proposed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. According to The Columbus Dispatch, the rules would allow the state to require geological tests before a new disposal well could be drilled, and would require monitoring of well pressure.