State Senate panel OKs fracking ban
Two other bills let FPL charge its customers for fracking ventures.
TALLAHASSEE — As a bill proposing to prohibit fracking in Florida passed its first committee in the Florida Senate, another bill that would allow utilities to charge their customers for fracking ventures is under consideration.
Tuesday, the fracking ban proposal, Senate bill 442, passed the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee by a vote of 5-0. The bill would ban unconventional “well stimulation” techniques including acid fracking and matrix acidizing.
F r a c k i n g i nvo l ve s f r a c t u ring rocky deposits apart with a high-pressure mix of water, chemicals and sand underground so that gas and oil are more easily released. Environmental groups oppose it because they say it could contaminate Florida’s aquifers, and thus the water supply for millions of people.
Fracking is legal in Florida, but the controversial method also known as hydraulic fracturing is not in use now in the state. The state produces a small but significant amount of oil and natural gas each year through conventional drilling, and has since the 1940s.
“The health effects of fracking are well understood,” said Dr. Rani Gereige, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Florida. “There are numerous peer-reviewed scientific and medical articles that find the fracking process harms health by polluting the air, water and the environment we live in. Many of the chemicals used are known to cause cancer, are toxic to the nervous system and interfere with the body’s nor- mal hormone functions.”
Meanwhile, two bills filed in the House and Senate would change the law to allow Florida Power & Light to charge its customers for oil and gas exploration and drilling involving fracking.
Last May in a win for FPL customers, the Florida Supreme Court reversed a Florida Public Service Commission decision allowing FPL to charge ratepayers for a fracking venture in Oklahoma.
SB 1238, sponsored by Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, and HB 1043, sponsored by Rep. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, if approved, would allow utilities with at least 65 percent natural gas-fueled generation to charge customers for “prudent” investments in gas reserves and associated expenses.
FPL is the only electric utility in Florida that uses that much natural gas. FPL officials have repeat- edly stated they have no plans to conduct oil or natural gas drilling or fracking in Florida.
Jon Moyle, an attorney representing the Florida Industrial Power Users Group said Wednesday: “FPL’s latest business venture of wildcatting for oil and natural gas in Oklahoma, Texas and other states should not be funded by FPL’s captive customers. While other oil and gas companies must compete to earn a profit, this legislation guarantees monopolistic FPL a healthy profit on its oil and natural gas drilling ventures, regardless of whether or not FPL’s ventures save ratepayers money. The oil and gas business is very competitive and risky, and not something for which the Legislature should force FPL’s ratepayers to pay as part of their monthly electric bill.”
Under standards spelled out in the bill, the PSC would adopt a rule requiring that any such investment is projected to generate savings for customers over the life of the investment.
In December 2014, the PSC approved FPL’s request to collect the cost of its $191 million fracking venture with PetroQuest in Oklahoma’s Woodford Shale region from its customers through fuel charges on their bills.
Then in June 2015, the PSC gave FPL the go-ahead to invest as much as $500 million a year in natural gas drilling operations, effectively making the utility and its customers partners in what can be a risky business.
FPL was ordered to refund customers $24.5 million it had spent on the Woodford project.