Fracking ban in Florida gets early Senate support
TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Senate reversed years of opposition to a statewide ban on oil and gas fracking and advanced a bill Tuesday that will prohibit the controversial practice in Florida.
Just hours after opening the annual legislative session, the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation voted unanimously to prohibit “advanced well stimulation treatment,” specifically hydraulic fracturing, acid fracturing and matrix acidizing. The high-pressure process involves injecting large volumes of water, sand and chemicals into rock formations to release oil and natural gas from rock caverns deep underground. Environmentalists says it is too risky a process to allow near Florida’s fragile aquifer.
The bill, SB 442, is sponsored by Sen. Dana Young, R-Tampa, who reversed her opposition to a fracking ban last year, promising voters in her newly drawn Senate district that she would make approval of the ban a top priority.
“This has been a wonderful journey,” Young said, acknowledging the shift in position since she voted for a House bill last year that would have regulated and authorized fracking beginning in 2017, after a state study.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article137055288.html
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