April 27, 2015

Tallahassee, Fla. – The Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) today released the following statement attributable to its senior vice president of state and federal affairs, Brewster Bevis, regarding the passage of House Bill 1205, relating to the regulation of onshore oil and gas resources.

“AIF applauds the Florida House of Representatives for passing commonsense legislation that will provide regulatory certainty to the onshore oil and gas industry while also ensuring Florida’s precious environment is safeguarded.

“HB 1205 contains many good provisions, among them are regulations that are good for our state and protect the public interest; for example, creating further oversight of high-pressure well stimulation techniques by requiring that an additional permit, over and above what is required now, be obtained before any high-pressure well stimulation is conducted.  In addition, the legislation calls for increased inspection authority for DEP, and requires that all chemicals and other materials added during high-pressure well stimulations be disclosed to the chemical disclosure registry, FracFocus.

“And, while we remain concerned about the inclusion of a study in HB 1205, we believe this good public policy by Representative Rodrigues provides a strong regulatory structure that will grant this good industry, which has operated safely and responsibly in Florida continuously since 1943, the certainty it needs to continue to operate and provides jobs to Floridians, capital to our state’s economy and assist in lessening our state and nation’s dependence of foreign sources of oil, all while ensuring our environment is well protected.”

For more information on AIF, please visit AIF.com and follow @VoiceofFLBiz.

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