Fracking bill headed to full Legislature with divided report
A bill to regulate a controversial method of extracting natural gas from the ground, known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is all but dead after a majority of the Legislature’s Environmental and Natural Resources Committee recommended that the measure be rejected.
Steven Langlin, the committee’s clerk, told Mainebiz that a “divided report” will now head to the full Legislature for a full reading after last week’s vote, which also saw two committee members call for an outright ban or moratorium on fracking.
No date has been set yet for a floor debate.
LD 1453, “An Act to Regulate Hydraulic Fracturing to Prevent Threats to Maine’s Drinking Water,” was referred to the committee on April 18 and came under fire in a hastily called public hearing last week, during which several people questioned the safety of fracking.
As an emergency measure, the legislation would take effect as soon as approved. The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, asked committee members last week to withdraw the measure, after learning that the Maine Department of Environmental Protection already regulates such activities.
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