Jeb Bush Championed Fracking While Standing To Profit From It, Report Alleges

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) pushed states to approve the controversial drilling practice known as fracking while he personally stood to profit from the practice, the Tampa Bay Times reported on Friday.

According to the Times, Bush, a likely 2016 presidential contender, urged a group of New York conservatives in 2013 to support fracking, even while he was involved with a private equity group that was raising $40 million for a company acquiring fracking wells.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, involves drilling water, chemicals and sand into the earth to break up rocks, thus freeing oil and natural gas. Environmentalists who object to the process say that fracking releases hazardous chemicals into the water supply.

“We should be celebrating this phenomenal achievement –- and we do, in North Dakota, in Pennsylvania, in south and west Texas. Some states, like here in New York, are choosing not to grow. They won’t approve fracking,” Bush told the group, according to the New York Post. “Meanwhile, in parts of New York where huge opportunities exist for the restoration of economic activity, people languish.”

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