Pro Fracking Bill moves through Florida Senate will take away local control

Pro Fracking Bill moves through Florida Senate will take away local control

fracking-infographic

In the past year many counties have voted to ban fracking. This bill would override that and put the issue under the state. That would take away all local control which I think is the hallmark of living in America. Especially in Florida. We may not be able to control what goes on in DC but we can control what goes on in our backyard.

Our backyards should be filled with clean water and happy people at the beach. It should be filled with paddle boards, kayaks, surfboards, nature trips, fishing. Manatees and Dolphins in our lagoon.

This is something that should not be even though about.

You want jobs you clean the waters. If you clean it they will come.

On Sept. 17, Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, introduced SB 318 (aka, “Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources”). The bill summary is completely blunt about what it’s proposing: “Preempting the regulation of all matters relating to the exploration, development, production, processing, storage, and transportation of oil and gas.” Not only that, if a municipality has already decided that it does not wish to allow fracking within its jurisdiction, this bill would declare “existing ordinances and regulations relating thereto void.

Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, is one of the legislators leading the charge against fracking – he’s put forward a bill for the 2016 session that would ban fracking in the state completely: “We have a very unique geology here,” he says, pointing out that the fragile limestone bed beneath our soil would not be able to withstand the practice of shooting chemicals into it at high pressure. “Our geology does not allow for fracking to be done safely.”

Something similar happened recently in Texas. The small city of Denton, Texas banned fracking within its borders in late 2014. Less than six months later, the state of Texas signed a bill into law that banned any bans on fracking, nullifying Denton’s law. A story in the Dallas Morning News pointed out that “numerous studies” have tied fracking to earthquakes, and here has been a marked increase in seismic activity in the Dallas area recently. On Sept. 21, an earthquake that measured 2.6 M on the Richter scale shook the city. The San Antonio Current says it was the “more powerful than any of the other multiple earthquakes that hit the area this year.”
Although the U.S. Geological Survey has said that the cause of recent quakes in Dallas is not clear, a study released in May by Southern Methodist University concluded that stresses caused by “oil and gas activity” in the area are likely contributors.

We have hurricanes do we need to add earthquakes to the list? And oh, the kicker is insurance companies do not cover damage caused by fracking.

This is the bill:

CS/SB 318: Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2016/0318
Regulation of Oil and Gas Resources; Preempting the regulation of all matters relating to the exploration, development, production, processing, storage, and transportation of oil and gas; requiring that a permit be obtained before the performance of a high-pressure well stimulation; requiring the Division of Water Resource Management to give consideration to and be guided by certain additional criteria when issuing permits, etc. APPROPRIATION: $1,000,000.00

The proposal also prohibits local governments from putting local bans in place. However, the measure was amended Monday to allow counties and municipalities to “adopt and enforce land use requirements,” so long as the local rules don’t “impose a moratorium on, effectively prohibit, or inordinately burden” the drilling activities.

So do we need a bunch of crazy wildcatters coming to Florida destroying what we have left?

Please  do your own research and make your own decisions and call your senators and let them know how you want them to vote.

After all, they work for us not the other way around.

You can watch the video

Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government

 

 

TreasureCoast

TreasureCoast

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  • Posted 8 years ago

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