Florida and fracking

This article is part of the FrackSwarm coverage of fracking.

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Environmental impacts overview Fracking and air pollution Fracking and climate change Fracking and water consumption Fracking and water pollution Fracking regulations Fracking studies State-by-state overviews International overviews

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Citizen groups working on fracking Oil and gas companies Shale formations List of all fracking-related pages

Florida has a long history of oil drilling in parts of southwest Florida and the Panhandle. Fracking is not taking place in the state, however in October 2013, the Fort Myers News-Press reported that it had obtained emails from the Department of Environmental Protection indicating discussions had been taking place about the possibility of fracking in Florida. In Feburary 2016 the state passed a bill that would allow fracking to occur.

History

Since 1943 Florida The state has produced approximately 25 billion gallons. Drilling peaked in the late 1970s.

The Sunniland Trend, located in Collier, Hendry, Lee and Miami-Dade counties has produced through conventional drilling. The Northwestern part of the state in Jay Field, located in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties has also produced through conventional drilling.

The Tallahassee Democrat reports that oil and gas may be located Gulf and Calhoun counties based on logs from exploratory wells drilled in the area between the 1940s and late 1980s. A basin located 15,000 feet underground appears similar to areas in Northwestern Florida Santa Rosa and Escambia counties holding significant amounts of oil from the Smackover formation.

Background

In March 2013, the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee voted unanimously to approve a measure (HB 743) that would direct the state Department of Environmental Protection to set up a registry to collect the information about chemicals and volumes of water used in the fracking process, should fracking occur in the state. The Senate version (SB 1028) had been filed but not yet heard in a committee. The Florida Petroleum Council expressed support for the bill.

In 2014 Florida produced 222,700 barrels (9.4 million gallons) of crude oil.

In 2014 Collier County residents and county officials spoke out against a form of unconventional drilling called acidification. Of concern is Texas-based Dan A. Hughes Co acidification of the wetlands near Naples.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported in 2015 that Cholla Petroleum, a Dallas, Texas oil company’s plan to search for oil and gas in North Florida in Calhoun and Gulf counties near the Apalachicola and Chipola rivers. Some residents fear that the company plans to do hydraulic fracturing. Cholla also wants to expand to the wetlands 17 miles south of Blountstown in Calhoun County and north of Wewahitchka in coastal Gulf County.

LNG terminal

Carib Energy

In 2014, the Carib Energy plant in Martin County, Florida, was granted a license to export 40 million cubic feet a day of natural gas to nearly any country, including those without a free trade agreement with the U.S. Carib is already exporting LNG in shipping containers to Caribbean and Central American countries. Carib Energy is now a subsidiary of the Crowley Maritime Corporation.

Citizen activism

There is environmentalist organizing against drilling in the Big Cypress National Preserve, where drilling is currently allowed. Big Cypress National Preserve protects over 729,000 acres of swamp containing both tropical and temperate plant communities. The land filters water into an underground aquifer that provides drinking water for the city of Naples. Of particular interest to drillers is a geological area called the Sunniland Trend beneath the preserve.

February 1, 2016: A group of protesters, which included elected officials and environmental activists, staged a rally outside State Sen. Thad Altman’s office in Cape Canaveral, Florida to voice their concerns of efforts to allow fracking in Tallahassee. The group demanded Sen. Altman back a fracking ban in order to protect Florida's water quality and environment.

Drilling

In 2014 Texas-based oil company Dan A. Hughes Co. was cited for illegal fracking in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, which is nesting site for wood storks. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection sanctioned and fined the company $25,000 for fracking without a permit. However, the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection was criticized for not immediately disclosing the sanctions and fine to the public.

Legislative issues and regulations

In November 2014 two Florida State Senators, Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, and Sen. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, filed legislation that, if passed, would ban fracking in the state to protect the water supply, environment and robust tourism economy. That bill failed to pass, but was reintroduced in 2015.

In June 2015 legislators passed a ruling allowing customers of Florida Power & Light, the state's largest utility, to pay up to $500 million a year in unregulated natural gas hydraulic fracturing projects. Florida Power and & Light will be the first utility in the nation to be allowed to use ratepayer money for such an unregulated risk.

In December 2015 the decision Florida if FP&L can bill customers for fracking expedition was kicked to the Florida Supreme Court.

In November 2015 Florida county commissioners opposed a push by state lawmakers that would curtail their ability to regulate or ban fracking in their counties. As of November 2015, 20 counties in Florida had fracking bans, including Leon and Miami-Dade. The bans covered 43 percent of the state's population, or 8 million people. However, state bills (HB 191 and SB 318) would curtail county's ability to regulate fracking, and instead would manage this type of resource development at the state level. The proposed state bills would take away the county or city's ability to ban fracking. Only zoning ordinances passed prior 2015 would be enforceable if these state measures pass.

Broward County Commission has proposed a blanket ban on fracking throughout the county after a landowner, Kanter Real Estate, request to drill an exploratory well in the Everglades. Kanter owns 20,000 undeveloped acres in the Everglades, west of the city of Miramar. A public hearing will take place January 12, 2016.

In February 2016, the Florida House approved a bill that would regulate fracking in the state. HB 191 will allow fracking, however this drilling will not be allowed until after a report by state environmental regulators is released in 2017. Earlier the Florida House rejected a measure that would have forced the oil and gas industry to "disclose carcinogens and monitor the effects of fracking on pregnant women and drinking water." Even so, the bill would prevent local governments from banning fracking within their jurisdiction.

Citizen groups

• The Conservancy of Southwest Florida

• Florida Coastal & Ocean Coalition

• StoneCrab Alliance

• South Florida Wildlands Association

Industry groups

• Florida Petroleum Council

Resources

Related GEM.wiki articles

• LNG Terminals
• United States and fracking

Click on the map below for state-by-state information on fracking:

External links

• FracTracker

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