By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Oil and gas companies would be required to inform the state of chemicals being injected into the ground as part of the drilling process known as “fracking” under a pair of measures approved Tuesday by a House panel.
The Republican-dominated House Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee, in party-line 8-4 votes, supported the two bills (HB 71 and HB 157). The measures focus on disclosure of chemicals, as hydraulic fracturing — or fracking – is not prohibited in Florida.
Meanwhile, critics of the drilling process warned of impacts to groundwater supplies and contended the House measures, through the appearance of disclosure, will provide oil and gas companies cover to start using the process in Florida.
One of the bills (HB 71) would require companies to inform the state Department of Environmental Protection of the chemicals they use in the process and for the state agency to forward the information to a national registry called FracFocus.org. The second bill (HB 157) would allow the DEP to determine if an exemption from public disclosure should be given to any chemical a company argues needs to be shielded as a trade secret.
Sponsor Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, said his proposals are simply a proactive approach to provide public information about what is going into the ground, rather than getting into the larger debate of fracking.
“The key question is this: Do you prefer the status quo, which is hydraulic fracturing is permitted with no disclosure; or do you prefer to know what is being put into the ground?” Rodrigues said.
Fracking is a controversial process that involves injecting water, sand and chemicals underground to create fractures in rock formations, which allows the release of natural gas and oil. Florida has long had oil drilling in parts of Southwest Florida and the Panhandle.
In the 2013 session, a similar disclosure proposal by Rodrigues was backed 92-19 on the House floor but never got a full Senate vote. The companion to that proposal — to include a public-records exemption for trade secrets — died in the House after receiving strong Democratic opposition.
The opposition is already showing to be stronger for the 2014 session.
Rep. Larry Lee, a Port St. Lucie Democrat who voted in favor of last year’s disclosure bill, said the damage he has seen this past summer to the St. Lucie Estuary as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released polluted water from Lake Okeechobee has pushed him into the anti-fracking camp.
“I think water is going to be the next oil, and if we don’t protect our water we’re all doomed,” Lee said. “I think the attempt to have disclosure made public is a good attempt, however I think there are too many loopholes.”
Also voting against the proposals, Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Plantation, said she would work to add language into the bill to require companies to disclose how much of each chemical is being used. Similar language was tacked onto the 2013 effort.
But Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, called the current proposals a “big step in disclosing what actually is going on and it protects the public.” And Rep. Cary Pigman, R-Avon Park, added that energy production is a “vital national effort.”
“I believe this bill strikes that good balance between public disclosure and respecting business proprietary interests,” Pigman said.
David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, said his council would oppose any attempt to impose a statewide moratorium against fracking, saying the technology has helped the industry.
“We believe that our industry has been the one industry that saved us from a complete depression during the economic downturn,” Mica said. “Because of this technology we have transformed the economic equation associated with the production of oil and gas in this country to rewrite the history books associated, and science books associated, with energy.”
Steve Masterson, representing the Florida League of Conservation Voters, said a major flaw in the current proposal is that the companies would be given 60 days to inform the DEP of the chemicals being used after the process is started.
“When a well goes bad 30 days after this process has been started how do the first responders know what poisons they’re dealing with?” Masterson said. “How do the people in the neighborhood know what is happening under their neighborhood?”
The public disclosure measure still has scheduled stops before the Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee and the State Affairs Committee, while the exemption is scheduled to appear before Government Operations Subcommittee and State Affairs Committee.
Neither proposal currently has a Senate companion.