Everybody knows fracking is bad, right? How hard could it be to get it on the ballot?

Well, the prospect of daily earthquakes, sinkholes in the backyard, and eternal damnation might not be as easy a sell as you might think. This article in the Detroit Free Press is a very interesting one. Here are two short excerpts:

     A group looking to get a ban on hydraulic fracturing on the 2016 ballot has fallen well short in gathering the necessary signatures to put the issue before voters.
     The Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan announced Wednesday that they gathered 150,000 signatures in the last six months, but they needed 252,523 to qualify for the ballot.

[and. . .]

     The group has tried to get a fracking ban on the ballot in the last two election cycles in 2012 and 2014, but hasn’t gotten enough signatures, Kozma said, adding the group doubled the number of signatures they got this year over their 2014 totals.

If you recall, The Palm Beach Post editorial board, not to be confused with the news, has already chimed in and said "No fracking way." If you're interested in the history of natural gas in Florida read about the Sunniland formation here. Although the amount of natural gas there is tremendous and known since prior to WWII the technology hasn't been available to reach it.

The technology is available now but the price of fossil fuels is too low to make it a wise business decision. That along with the federal and state environmental guidelines. BTW, natural gas extraction in Florida is nothing new by any means.