But the Republicans who joined Democratic lawmakers and environmental advocates said that with the possibility of fracking becoming legal in the state, the stakes were too high for them not to push a bill that would ban the practice.
“Loving our environment and wanting to protect our environment is not a partisan issue," said Republican State Senator from Tampa, Dana Young. "Democrats and Republicans, we agree on this. I'm a Republican, and I might be the only Republican you've ever clapped for.”
The rally took place in Tallahassee and was streamed for the general public via Facebook live via Environment Florida's Facebook page.
The practice of fracking, of course, involves an oil or gas company using pressurized water and acidic substances to burrow through thousands of feet of rock in order to access oil or gas naturally occurring below. The waste water from the process is also likely to be stored underground.
But underlying much of Florida is a layer of porous limestone in which much of the state's water supply is naturally stored. That leaves the state's water supply vulnerable to contamination, even more overuse than is already occurring and even sinkholes.
"Our system is so unique, our aquifers, our water supply, is so unique in Florida," said State Rep. Gary Farmer, a Democrat from Fort Lauderdale. "Our limestone topography is unique. It's like a hardened sponge with holes all over. The truth of these new technologies is we don't know where these chemicals will go when they're shot into the ground at high pressure rates. And that's why I am so proud to be part of the bipartisan coalition that is supporting the ban on fracking.”
Bills to ban fracking have been introduced with bipartisan support in both the State House and State Senate, though if the one Senate committee hearing on the proposal has cleared so far is any, indication oil and gas lobbyists will be showing up in full force to fight it.
That's why the bill's proponents are urging Floridians to contact their Senator and Represntative to ask them to support the ban.
“The science is irrefutable. There is nothing—nothing—that is positive about fracking in Florida. Florida does not need fracking. We don't have the geology that can even withstand fracking," said State Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, a Republican from southwest Florida, where an illegal fracking outfit was underway several year ago. “It's bad for our health, it's bad for our water supply. It's bad for the aquifer.”
Plus, she added, taking a gamble on Florida's water safety could tear apart the state's economy.
"If we have toxic water in Florida, tourists or people who want to come here and live here are not going to anymore," Fitzenhagen said. "They're going to go away, which is going to pummel Florida's economy.”
In recent years, Republicans have brought bills to the legislature that would have opened up the state to fracking and regulated it, albeit after a feasibility study, during which there would be a moratorium. Young, who is a sponsor of the statewide ban, supported the bill that might have opened the state up to fracking, but has said that she only did so because she supported the moratorium, and thought it was essentially a ban.
State Sen. Jack Latvala, a Clearwater Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, told those gathered that the reason that bill never passed was the deliberation that took place in committee, when lawmakers spent time “questioning the witnesses and showing the holes in the argument,” and enough lawmakers who originally supported it or were on the fence decided to oppose it.
With that in mind, he said, perhaps lawmakers who might be skeptical of the environmental community's claims may give this one a second look.
“Every now and then we get it right, and then we got it right,” Latvala said.
To find/contact your State Senator on this bill S.B. 442, go here. To find/contact your State Rep. on their version of the bill, H.B. 35 H.B. 451 go here.
This article appears in Mar 16-23, 2017.