Energy

Florida Prohibits Local Fracking Bans

(REUTERS/Larry Downing)

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Andrew Follett Energy and Science Reporter
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The Florida legislature passed a bill Wednesday prohibiting local bans on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, allowing the well-stimulation technique in the state as early as 2017.

The bill also requires Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection to conduct a $1 million study looking at the potential impact of fracking on the state’s geology and water supply, specifically looking for effects on human health. The bill increases penalties for violating fracking regulations from $10,000 to $25,000 a day per violation and requires companies to go through an extensive permitting process before fracking.

“This good bill recognizes the emergence of a new technology in energy independence,” Shawn Harrison, a Republican representative from Tampa, told The Miami Herald. “We owe it to our constituents to explore where this new technology can be done in Florida and whether it can be done in Florida.”

The prohibition on fracking bans comes after local government officials in Broward County voted Tuesday to ban all fracking in their county, even though there is no fracking taking place anywhere nearby.

Environmental groups in 41 cities and 27 counties strongly oppose the bill over concerns fracking could contaminate groundwater with chemicals. Fracking involves injecting sand, water and some chemicals deep underground to break open shale formations and unleash previously inaccessible oil and natural gas.

“I’m here because I don’t want my water polluted like Flint,” Tanya Tweeton, an environmental activist associated with a local Sierra Club affiliate, told the Broward Palm Beach New Times Wednesday. “If the aquifer gets contaminated, that’s it. The water will be poisoned.”

The idea fracking can contaminate aquifers defies “basic geology [which] prevents such contamination from starting below ground,” according to the science magazine Popular Mechanics.

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