Fracking ban proposal re-emerges in Florida

After the issue made little progress last year, Senate Minority Leader Gary Farmer, D-Lighthouse Point, began a renewed effort Tuesday to ban fracking in Florida.

Farmer filed a bill (SB 546) that would ban hydraulic fracturing -- known as fracking -- to extract oil and natural gas.

The proposal also would ban a process known as matrix acidization, which uses many of the same chemicals as in hydraulic fracturing but dissolves rocks with acid instead of fracturing them with pressurized liquid. Farmer’s proposal is filed for the legislative session that starts March 2.

It comes after years of efforts by some lawmakers and environmentalists to prevent the possibility of fracking in Florida.

But the Legislature has rejected proposed bans, including bills last year that cleared only one Senate committee and no House committees.