Florida’s next governor will most likely oppose fracking

The major candidates to be Florida's next governor have found common ground, underground: They all oppose fracking.

Congressman Ron DeSantis confirmed to an environmental advocacy group, the Food & Water Action Fund, on Monday that he was against the practice. The group provided video of the exchange to the Times/Herald.

"Thank you so much for supporting the ban on drilling offshore," said Ginger Goepper, a volunteer with the group, who spoke to DeSantis after Monday's campaign event with Sean Hannity in Tampa.  "Do you also support a ban on fracking in Florida?"

"Yes," DeSantis replied emphatically.

Previous statements to both news media and the advocacy group have put the other major candidates for governor also on the record as being against fracking, including the five top Democrats and DeSantis's Republican opponent, Adam Putnam.

"We don't need to be fracking in Florida," Putnam said in an earlier videoed conversation with Goepper, also after a campaign event. Putnam added that he is also against offshore drilling because Florida needs to "to protect our beaches."

The Florida Legislature has considered fracking bans in the past but they have never had enough support to pass into law.

Fracking, technically called "hydraulic fracturing," is the practice of drilling underground and then injecting pressurized liquid into the rock to force it to release oil and gas, which has worried environmentalists over its potential to contaminate groundwater.