Maryland House, Senate Pass Measures To Curb Fracking

"Both chambers of the Maryland General Assembly separately passed measures Tuesday that mark the most aggressive action the legislature has taken to curb natural gas extraction in the state.

The Maryland House of Delegates passed a three-year ban on fracking and the Senate approved tough new legal standards for drillers. Each bill must still clear the other chamber, but the actions signaled the legislature was willing to go further than it has before to limit natural gas drilling.

"If we get this wrong, it is unfixable," Democrat Del. Dereck Davis told his colleagues during the House debate.

Maryland has been under a de facto ban for more than three years after former Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, put any permit review on hold while a commission studied the industry and his administration wrote regulations to enforce it. "

Erin Cox and Timothy B. Wheeler report for the Baltimore Sun March 24, 2015.