Melissa Ross
The grassroots push to ban fracking in Florida continues.
Activists are mobilizing fracking foes to call and email Calhoun County Commissioners and demand an emergency meeting on the issue.
The sparsely populated county is in the Panhandle, west of Tallahassee.
“Calhoun County will have the Cholla Petroleum Company begin seismic testing any day now,” reads the invite to one Facebook organizational effort. “This is for fossil fuel extraction for oil or gas. Fracking via hydraulic fracturing and matrix acid stimulation is a threat to Florida’s environment and water supply.”
The social media rally comes after news that seismic testing in Calhoun and Gulf counties was on hold because of a legal challenge.
“Cholla Petroleum is days away from starting their seismic testing in Calhoun and Gulf counties. They were challenged but apparently it did no good. Cholla is a fracking company out of Texas. They will be drilling and blasting across the Dead Lakes and very close to the fragile Apalachicola and Chipola rivers. Gulf County passed a resolution, but Calhoun refused, as they have close ties to the Neal Timber Company that owns most of the land in that area.”
Meanwhile, a measure that would have regulated fracking in the state died this legislative session.
