TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A bill that would study and create regulations for fracking is all but dead after a Florida Senate committee rejected it.
The Senate Appropriations Committee narrowly voted against the bill. It was then kept alive on a procedural move.
Opponents' concerns about the environment and measures that wouldn't let local governments ban the method of oil and gas drilling won out over supporters' warnings that fracking is already legal and voting down the bill would let it happen without protections.
The House already passed a similar bill that requires the state Department of Environmental Protection to study the effects of fracking and develop regulations.
Fracking uses water and chemicals to blast through rock to get to oil and gas underneath. Opponents say drinking water could be contaminated by the process.
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