TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Fresh off a statewide fracking ban in New York, environmental activists are taking the fight to Florida.
Never mind that fracking hardly exists in the Sunshine State, at least compared to the North and Midwest.
The message is clear: Shut it down.
“Follow New York’s lead and ban fracking in Florida!” says an online petition by the national activist group Food and Water Watch. The petition includes a pre-written email template designed for Florida legislators.
Several Democratic state lawmakers are on board.
This week, state Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Dania Beach, introduced legislation to ban oil and natural gas well “stimulation.”
In December, Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, and Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, filed a bill prohibiting any “person from engaging in hydraulic fracturing in this state.”
Hydraulic fracturing is a drilling technique used to extract oil and natural gas by using pressurized water mixtures to fracture underground rock. Critics say it’s unsafe, environmentally hazardous and dangerous to water supplies.
Fracking is also at the forefront of America’s so-called energy revolution, which in recent years has dramatically improved the country’s energy outlook while creating jobs and large-scale economic benefits.
Florida remains the largest electoral swing state in presidential elections, and environmental issues will be critically important for Democrats in 2016 — not just to energize voters but for cash, too.
Ahead of the November mid-terms, California billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer spent millions in his effort to unseat incumbent Gov. Rick Scott. He failed there, but Steyer’s super PAC, NextGen Climate Action Committee, maintains a Florida presence and has millions in the bank, according to the state Division of Elections.
But citing the state’s geology, Doyle told Watchdog, “there’s not much to gain from hydraulic fracturing in Florida.”
“There may be a few pockets where it could be done in Southwest Florida, but, generally, sandy ground doesn’t offer much in the way of resource extraction from hydraulic fracturing,” he said.