ENVIRONMENT

Statewide fracking ban picks up GOP support

Arek Sarkissian
arek.sarkissian@naplesnews.com; 850-559-7620

TALLAHASSEE - A once-unpopular proposal by Democrats to ban fracking in Florida picked up influential support Tuesday from key Republicans in the state Senate, but its fate in the House is uncertain.

Sen. Dana Young, R-Tampa, joined fellow freshman Sen. Gary Farmer, D-Fort Lauderdale, in supporting the ban of all types of an oil extraction method known as fracking.

"I want my children and all Floridians to have the same opportunities that I had to enjoy Florida," Young said of her bill proposing the ban.

Young's opposition to fracking is a reversal of the position she took last year as the House Majority Leader. She helped corral votes for a bill by Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, that called for statewide regulation created with a yearlong study conducted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Some saw Rodrigues' bill as a pro-fracking measure, and it reversed more than 40 bans passed by municipal and county governments around the state.

"Many people don't realize this, but that bill was also a ban. It put the moratorium on fracking for a year," Young said. "I think it's time we stop looking at the past and start looking toward the future."

Rep. Mike Miller, R-Winter Park, filed an identical proposed fracking ban Tuesday in the House.

"It's definitely not a slam dunk, definitely no guarantee," Miller said. "But at least it's getting all of us to consider what this does to our state, our environment and our tourism."

Farmer filed a bill similar to Young's in November. State Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach, filed a similar version in the House. At the time, Jenne said the bill was more of a statement in the event another lawmaker submitted another plan to regulate fracking.

Miller said he did not yet have support from House leadership.

"All I can ask is that they consider it," he said.

Rodrigues' bill passed the House last year with a 73-45 vote. An identical version filed by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, failed to pass the Senate Appropriations Committee. Powerful senators on the committee such as Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, voted against Richter's bill.

Latvala now supports efforts this year to ban the practice.

"I'll say it. I didn't like what I heard in that committee meeting, and I think after I heard some of the things that were said during that meeting and in other meetings, this was the way we need to go," Latvala said.

Previous efforts by Rodrigues and Richter to regulate fracking stem from an oil driller that refused to stop fracking at a well in eastern Collier County in late 2013. Texas-based Dan A. Hughes Co. refused to honor demands from the state DEP to stop conducting a type of fracking that pumps acid into the ground to eat through shale and free oil and natural gas trapped inside.

The state eventually stopped Hughes, but the incident led the Collier County Commission to ask Richter to file a regulation bill in 2015. That bill died with an abrupt end to the 2015 legislative session due to a fight over health care funding.

Related story: Monitor told DEP that Dan Hughes Co. dumped oil on fracking site in Collier County

Richter brought back his bill in last year's session with sharper language pre-empting any local ordinances, which reversed local bans and stripped local authority on the issue. It received plenty of opposition from environmental groups and local governments.

Rodrigues, who replaced Young as House Majority Leader, said he had not yet read her bill proposing a ban, but he wonders how local governments would react to its pre-emption of local bans.

"These were the same people who didn't want pre-emption in my bill. What will they do now?" Rodrigues said. "It will be interesting."

A case DEP brought against Hughes in October for the way it disposed of toxic waste remains active. In its complaint, DEP alleged Hughes crews dumped an oil mixture into the holes where it had drilled at the eastern Collier site known as the Hogan mine. The company also failed to properly cap the wells, according to the complaint.