Did Ron DeSantis Ban Fracking in Florida? What We Know

Among the many claims made at the second Republican presidential primary debate was that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had banned fracking in his home state when he first came to office in 2019.

"Energy security is national security," former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley told the audience in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Wednesday. "What you don't need is a president who is against energy independence. Ron DeSantis is against fracking, he's against drilling."

Amid cries of "that is not true" from the accused hopeful, the former Trump administration envoy claimed: "You did it," adding: "Day two in Florida you banned fracking, you banned offshore drilling, you did it on federal lands."

While DeSantis pledged in his 2018 gubernatorial campaign to ban offshore fracking and drilling in Florida, and directed the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to seek an end to all fracking, it was voters who outlawed the practice of drilling. As a GOP presidential candidate, he has come out in favor of fracking and drilling.

"Our voters enacted a constitutional amendment that doesn't allow," he said before being interrupted. "They voted it in, that's what we did. Onshore we do do it in Florida."

A Haley campaign spokesperson told Newsweek that DeSantis "came out against fracking and drilling as a gubernatorial candidate—BEFORE voters voted on the constitutional amendment," that the amendment passed "only covered drilling" and "did not cover fracking."

Fracking is a fraught topic, especially for environmentalists. While the practice allows for more oil and natural gas to be produced domestically, strengthening America's independence from international fossil fuel markets and wild fluctuations in price they are prone to, it has been known to contaminate groundwater and induce localized earthquakes.

The process works by injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into the ground, fracturing layers of rock that contain pockets of oil and gas and bringing them to the surface.

While campaigning to become Florida's governor in 2018, he pledged to "work to ban fracking" in the state and "fight to prevent oil drilling off Florida's coast."

"With Florida's geological makeup of limestone and shallow water sources, fracking presents a danger to our state that is not acceptable," his campaign website said at the time.

On January 10, 2019, two days after being sworn into office, he signed an executive order directing the DEP to "take necessary actions to adamantly oppose all off-shore oil and gas activities off every coast in Florida and hydraulic fracturing in Florida." It meant new oil and gas permits had to include provisions forbidding the use of fracking, but pre-approved fracking still occurs.

"Our water and natural resources are the foundation of our economy and our way of life in Florida," DeSantis said in an adjoining statement. "That's why today I'm taking immediate action to combat the threats which have devastated our local economies and threatened the health of our communities."

However, that was the sum total of the action he took against fracking. The same ballot that had elected him governor also asked voters to choose on Amendment Nine, which banned offshore drilling for oil and gas beneath state waters and was approved by nearly 69 percent of the electorate.

While running for president, DeSantis has said he supports ramping up oil and gas drilling in the U.S., as well as the excavation of other natural resources. Visiting an oil rig in Texas earlier in September, he pledged: "We will green light oil and gas drilling extraction... I will demand faster approvals than any president in history," according to multiple reports.

Referring to policy in Florida in a speech in Louisiana, he said: "That is not saying that I think that should apply to Louisiana or Texas and all that—so that will continue. And we want them to be able to do it, and we also want them to be able to use hydraulic fracturing."

Update 09/29/23, 7:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from a Haley campaign spokesperson.