Fracking

IMAGE SOURCE: Anita Stewart On MidPoint we looked at hydraulic fracturing in Florida and citizens’ efforts to stop it; joining us on the phone from southwest Florida was Dr. Karen Dwyer, co-founder of the Stonecrab Alliance, an environmental advocacy group. Our in-studio guest was Jennifer Rubiello, state director of Environment Florida. Tuesday in Naples the Board of Collier County Commissioners is meeting and one thing they’ll do is to approve their Legislative Priorities for the county. One priority has to do with Inland Oil Drilling and Fracking. But our guests say that in addition to just proposing some regulations on fracking, the bill by State Senator Garrett Richter ( SB 318) could open up more south Florida land to fracking. They prefer an alternative bill by Senators Darren Soto and Dwight Bullard, SB166, that would ban fracking in Florida. We heard about fracking that has gone on in the past at Hogan Well and about other drilling techniques like acidizing, acid fracking, and high pressure well stimulation. ...

For folks on the east coast of Florida who have been watching the push for new oil drilling in the western Everglades - hold on to your hats. A new application just sent to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection would bring oil drilling to the Everglades of Broward County! Articles in the Miami-Herald and Sun-Sentinel - with soundbites from South Florida Wildlands - summarizes this breaking news. Much more to come - please get the word out by sharing this post widely. Articles are below. ...

The following piece was written by DGR Orlando member Chris Byron and appears in the February 2012 issue of “Sounds of a Democratic Society.” It is the first submission of what will be regular (monthly) submissions to the local zine by DGR Orlando members. The mainstream media has an innate modus operandi of only reporting what is profitable. Frightfully grim news regarding the planet’s health necessitates scattered reporting, on back pages and sub-sections, to keep the reader base interested enough, without being so frightened they cease reading altogether – and hopefully start rebelling. ...