An effort to ban fracking in Florida is moving through the legislature. The proposal cleared its first two committees Wednesday. But the House’s plan is drawing concerns.
Ahead of Wednesday's hearing environmentalists spread the word: the house bill is problematic, they argued. The House committee room was full of people who wanted to weigh in on the proposal. Critics say it creates a loophole by not banning all forms of fracking.
“It’s not my intent to slip daylight past a rooster today," said Rep. Holly Rashein (R-Key Largo). "My intent is to ban fracking. I had no intention of creating a loophole. We’re not re-defining fracking, we’re banning fracking. For our new members, four years ago we were debating regulating fracking.”
The proposal was approved in the House’s Agriculture Committee on a 9-to-6 vote after an effort to ban a process known as matrix acidizing to the ban, failed. TThe Senate’s version, which includes the matrix process, cleared its first committee unanimously.
Governor Ron DeSantis has prioritized banning Fracking.
