Sen. Bobby Zirkin, D-Baltimore County, introduced legislation last year to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Western Maryland but that bill died in committee. This year, Zirkin introduced a different bill that will go through the committee he chairs that would set extremely tough liability standards on gas drillers.
The rules, fracking advocates say, would be so onerous that they would drilling from ever coming to the state.
The Daily Record's Bryan Sears tells WYPR's Fraser Smith about the senator's response.