House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz of
Berlin and Majority Leader Matt Ritter of Hartford both favor a permanent ban
on the storage and disposal of fracking waste in Connecticut. (Photo by
Christopher P. Keating)
Hartford Courant
By Christopher Keating
09 May 2017
Legislators voted
overwhelmingly Tuesday for a permanent ban on the storage, disposal and use of
fracking waste in Connecticut.
By 141 to 6, the state
House of Representatives passed the bipartisan bill after a two-hour debate and
sent it to the state Senate. All six opponents were conservative Republicans.
Fracking waste is a
controversial byproduct from drilling for natural gas, which is not done in
Connecticut. The closest state to have the widespread practice of fracking is
Pennsylvania, prompting opponents to question why the Connecticut legislature
is debating the bill at all.
The state’s current
moratorium on the disposal of the waste will remain in effect until July 2018,
but the new bill supersedes it to make the ban permanent.
State Rep. Michael
DeMicco, a Farmington Democrat who co-chairs the environment committee, said
legislators are trying to be proactive by preventing any environmental problems
with fracking before they happen in Connecticut. In tough fiscal times,
lawmakers want to make sure that a cash-strapped town would not allow the
storage of waste in an attempt to earn money for the municipality.
But some Republicans
ripped the measure, known as House Bill 6329, Tuesday on the House floor.
"We have no
examples of storage or transportation prior to the moratorium,'' said Rep.
Charles Ferraro, a West Haven Republican. "We have no examples of it now.
... I have questions why we create laws for situations that don't exist. We're
creating a solution for a problem that doesn't exist.''…
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