Officials at the city and county aren't too happy about a pair of bills in Tallahassee that, in an attempt to legalize and "regulate" the questionable practice of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") in Florida, would bar local governments from banning the practice within their jurisdictions.
The Hillsborough County Commission on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution calling on the state legislature to pull two key provisions from the bill. Environmentalists obviously would like the bill to be pulled entirely, but this is the Florida legislature, so we'd be lucky if they change one word in a bill supported by an industry with as much clout as, say, oil and gas.
The Florida House of Representatives already passed its version of the pro-fracking bill, and the Senate is set to pass its version soon. This, despite the fact that 27 Florida counties have passed measures banning the practice.
Wednesday's measure in Hillsborough, which Commissioner Les Miller brought to the dais, asks lawmakers to remove two controversial provisions from the bill.
The first is the preemption component, which he said negates home rule. The second is a provision exempting oil and gas companies from having to divulge the recipe for the chemical cocktails they shoot underground to break up subterranean limestone in search of sweet, sweet fossil fuels. In other words, protection of trade secrets.
All commissioners were on board, though Commissioner Victor Crist was not present for the vote.
The measure's bipartisan support likely stems not from environmental concerns per se, but from the home rule and trade secret provisions; had Miller's resolution been composed solely out of concern about the practice itself, it's unclear how well it would have fared.
“I agree wholeheartedly,” Commissioner Stacy White, a conservative Republican representing rural areas, said after Miller read the resolution. “It appears that if we can get the trade secret and preemption language removed, then we would have a good bill here.”
During public comment ahead of the commission's brief discussion of the bill, environmental activists passionately appealed to commissioners to pass the resolution.
“The science and the peer-reviewed medical literature is clear that fracking will eventually contaminate the air and the water and [jeopardize] our health," said physician Dr. Lynn Ringenberg, president of the national advocacy group Physicians for Social Responsibility.
She said that all pipes inevitably leak, and if trade secret rules don't allow doctors to know what is in a fracking formula in the event it leeches into the water supply and threatens public health, they'll have no idea how to treat patients affected.
“I'm here today to ask you to protect public health and pass a resolution [opposing the fracking bill],” she said.
The Sierra Club's Kent Bailey said there's no need for a bill to legalize and regulate a practice that should be obsolete given low oil prices and the growth of renewable energy.
“Florida's communities deserve the right to decide for themselves whether or not fracking will be allowed. You and all the other county commissions in the state of Florida deserve the right to decide for yourselves whether or not fracking is allowed in your jurisdiction," he said. "Fracking is neither safe nor clean, and it would not exist if it were not exempt from the federal Clean Air Act and the Federal Clean Water Act. We don't need additional fossil fuel. The current depressed price of oil tells you that we have a glut of fossil fuels on the market already. We need instead to develop renewable energy, especially solar power in the Sunshine State.”
This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2016.