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This week a group called “Floridians Against Fracking” (FAF) claimed to have the signatures of 101 political candidates pledging their support of efforts to ban fracking in Florida. If all of these politicians and candidates did, in fact, sign this “pledge,” then they have been duped.

Even though fracking does not occur in the Sunshine State, FAF has borrowed a tactical page from other “ban fracking” efforts, using predictable all-too-familiar fear-mongering and dishonesty in place of science in a bid to derail productive domestic energy development. This “pledge” features the apocalyptic hyperbole we have come to expect from extreme anti-fracking activists, repeating numerous falsehoods about fracking and its associated effects that have been debunked by experts time and time again.

First, the pledge claims that fracking is exempted from “important environmental protections” which, of course, is nonsense. In fact, hydraulic fracturing is heavily regulated at the local, state, and federal levels. No oil or gas well can be drilled in Florida without a permit from Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection.

The pledges also claims:

“All Floridians and our major industries, like tourism and agriculture, require safe, reliable clean water resources and clean air. Florida already has very serious water scarcity and contamination issues, which fracking would only intensify.” (emphasis added)

It seems Florida’s anti-fracking activists failed to examine the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) data, which show that as the use of natural gas – thanks to fracking – has increased, air pollutants have decreased across the country, which has great...