Without Funding, Md. Fracking Could Face Delay

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Maryland Delegate Heather Mizeur says she is content to sit on the sidelines and not move forward with plans to study the impact of natural gas drilling in western Maryland.

Mizeur, a Montgomery County Democrat, said Wednesday that energy companies should be made to fund a study of the environmental impacts of gas drilling.

A bill that would have forced companies to pay a per-acre fee on land leased for drilling failed in the legislature this year. The money would have funded a study to examine impacts of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking.

Mizeur, who champions efforts to limit drilling, says the bill will likely reappear in the legislature next year.

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