While the pipeline in question is called the Keystone Pipeline, it is not the same as the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, which is still in the permitting process. Nonetheless, to environmental groups, the event suggests that no amount of permitting or regulation that can make oil and gas safe or sustainable.
To Aliki Moncrief, executive director of the group Florida Conservation Voters, the incident is yet another sign that state lawmakers need to do something to prevent fracking — the process of extracting oil and gas from thousands of feet underground by literally splitting subterranean rocks — in the State of Florida.
"How many oil spill disasters need to happen before our leaders say enough is enough?" Moncrief said in an emailed statement. "The oil and gas industry has been misleading the public and our lawmakers for decades about the safety of their equipment and infrastructure. Now they want to bring fracking to Florida. And they are making the same impossible promises."
She expressed frustration over how state lawmakers have been slow to move on a ban.
Earlier this year, State Rep. Kathleen Peters (R-Treasure Island) and State Sen. Dana Young (R-Tampa) have filed companion billed that would ban the practice throughout the state, but neither bill has had a committee hearing.
"[T]he state legislature has a choice this year," Moncrief continued. "They can ban fracking now, or they can wait until after a spill. With more than 90% of Floridians getting their drinking water from underground aquifers, the choice shouldn’t be this difficult.”
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2017.