Bill to ban fracking for oil and gas dies in Florida Legislature again

Florida lawmakers again wrapped up a legislative session without writing regulations for fracking and stimulated oil-drilling techniques.

A bill to ban such practices, filed by state Sen. Dana Young, R-Tampa, died in a Senate subcommittee after progressing through another. It did not get a hearing in the House.

"We're disappointed, but we're hopeful about next year when the leadership is likely to change in the House," said Amber Crooks, environmental policy manager at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. "We hope the next speaker will let the bills be heard and come to a vote."

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The next House speaker is expected to be state Rep. Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, if Republicans maintain their majority in the chamber.

Oliva has voted previously for a bill that would have banned hydraulic fracturing temporarily until a study on its effects in Florida could be completed. The bill would have prohibited cities and counties from banning the practice. After passing through the House that year, the proposed law never made it out of the Senate.

"We're making progress toward a ban," Crooks said. "We've seen more citizens become vocal about this. More science is becoming available to demonstrate the risk of fracking on health and water pollution and supply issues."

Fracking is a general term for various ways oil companies pump chemicals into a well to either dissolve or break up underground rock formations to stimulate oil and gas production. The processes help expand access to U.S. reserves.

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Opponents of the practice say it risks contaminating underground water supplies in Florida and poses problems with how to dispose of waste byproduct.

State Sen. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, whose district includes the site of an exploratory oil well that ignited controversy over fracking in 2013, said she still favors a moratorium coupled with a study over an outright ban. She said she thinks that might be the only way to get fracking regulations passed.

"That’s the consensus I see amongst my colleagues," Passidomo said.

"Part of the problem is the studies presented by both sides are from other states with totally different topographies," she said.

"Unless we actually do a study that takes into account Florida's unique topography and unique position, we really don’t know what the best course of action is."

The Texas-based oil company Dan A. Hughes Co. agreed to pay a $25,000 fine for fracking the Collier-Hogan well south of Lake Trafford in 2013 despite orders from the state Department of Environmental Protection to stop.

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The drilling there revealed shortcomings in the DEP's ability to regulate fracking and led to unsuccessful bills in 2016, 2017 and this year to strengthen oil and gas regulations.

Without new regulations, oil drillers can frack if they get permission from the DEP.

With oil prices low, drillers have not been seeking to frack in Florida, Passidomo said.

"But that could change if prices go up," she said.