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Mississippi Oil Drillers Eying Calhoun County

Big Bend environmentalists are sounding the alarm about a Mississippi company’s plans to drill for oil on 10 thousand acres in Calhoun County, about an hour west of Tallahassee.

The Calhoun County Commission is expected Tuesday night to decide whether to grant Spooner Petroleum’s request for a zoning change.

Rethink Energy’s Kim Ross is urging drilling opponents to make their voices heard.

“You know, there’s two different avenues of public input, and one of them is at this hearing tomorrow evening in Calhoun County to ask them to deny this land- use change.”

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is still weighing Spooner Petroleum’s 600-page permit application.

Company President Michael Spooner says there are no plans to use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

A Miami native, former WFSU reporter Jim Ash is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience, most of it in print. He has been a member of the Florida Capital Press Corps since 1992.