FLA Senate Kills Fracking Bill….For Now

The Florida State  Senate Appropriations committee on Thursday voted to reject proposal (SB 318) which would have diverted the authority over mineral rights development from the counties, cities and towns to a single statewide agency but lawmakers moved swiftly to enter a motion to reconsider the measure. That move would have kept the bill on the agenda, where it was set to get a hearing Tuesday until Sen. Garrett Richter made a motion to reconsideration, which killed the bill for the remainder of this legislative session.

“This is a controversial subject. The controversy will continue, and I daresay it will draw even more concerns,” said Richter. “I can pretty much assure you demand (for oil and gas) is not going to go away, but Senate Bill 318 is going away.”

The bill in question local governments from putting local bans in place to prevent fracking – the practice of driving oil to the surface by pumping water and chemicals deep into the earth under high pressure which has come under close scrutiny nationwide in the wake of health complaints from people living near fracking operations.  The bill would have allowed  local governments to adopt and enforce zoning and land use requirements, so long as those conditions didn’t prohibit the act. The bill also called for a moratorium on fracking until the Department of Environmental Protection completed a $1 million study and rules were adopted.

Click here to read the whole story on the  Florida Politics website

Also see our previous story on this subject