New Promise for Fracking Ban as Legislation Makes First 100 Senate Bills Filed

Tallahassee, FL -- Yesterday, Florida State Senator Bill Montford filed S.B. 200, a bill which proposes a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing and matrix acidizing, a similar method of unconventional drilling. This measure, which will move forward during Florida’s 2020 legislative session, comes after a fracking ban garnered huge bipartisan support and movement in the 2019 session, but ultimately was without the final push it needed for passage. Montford chairs the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, ensuring attention for the ban in the upcoming session.

In response, Food & Water Watch Senior Organizer Michelle Allen had this to say:

"We applaud Senator Montford’s commitment to protecting Floridians and our drinking water from toxic fracking chemicals by working to pass a ban on fracking. As other states are coming to terms with the horrifying knowledge that fracking operations are causing severe health impacts to those who live near them, Florida is ready to ban the dangerous practice once and for all. With the discovery of ‘cancer clusters’ in Pennsylvania eerily linked to nearby fracking operations in several adjacent counties, an unsettling study from the University of Colorado indicating an undeniable correlation between living near a fracking site and being at a higher risk of cancer, and a slew of other studies on the health risks of the fracking industry, the evidence is clear: fracking is harmful, and we must pass a fracking ban in the state to protect our drinking water and the health of Floridians.

"Governor DeSantis’ environmental platform included banning fracking, and the state is working hard to clean up Florida’s polluted waterways. Banning fracking is an easy and proactive way to ensure our drinking water is protected from the toxic chemicals associated with fracking operations.The Governor should make good on his ban fracking promise by supporting this bill and ensuring legislation is passed in the 2020 state legislative session to ban fracking. “