Florida bill could ban two out of three forms of oil and gas fracking
The Senate version of the bill doesn’t ban the matrix acidizing fracking procedure.
Two forms of fracking for oil and natural gas exploration would be banned in Florida under a bill that cleared state House and Senate committees Tuesday, leaving in place a third technique opponents say would still threaten water supplies and the state’s fragile environment.
- The House Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture and natural resources voted 10-2 for the bill, which would permit a rock-dissolving technique called matrix acidizing but ban two other common forms of fracking. Later Tuesday, the Senate Innovation, Industry and Technology Committee voted 6-4 for a similar bill.
Sen. Ben Albritton, the Lakeland Republican who chairs Agriculture, noted that the bill “only stops hydraulic fracturing, not oil production as a whole.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call to ban “fracking” advanced Tuesday in the House and Senate as environmentalists argue the proposals don’t go far enough and the petroleum industry fights to allow the controversial drilling technique.