ANNAPOLIS — A key amendment offered by Republican Sen. George Edwards to weaken a bill that could restrict the process of drilling for gas in Western Maryland was defeated on the Senate floor Thursday.
The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, seeks to hold energy companies responsible for any damages from hydraulic fracturing, a drilling process that is used in states such as Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The Senate voted 26-20 against an amendment to strip the bill of the words “ultra-hazardous and abnormally dangerous” to describe the process.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process by which water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to fracture rock and release natural gas.
