A state elections panel Friday gave its O-K to a couple of petition drives that want to put questions on the 2014 general election ballot.
One of the petition drives wants to outlaw a type of drilling for natural gas called “fracking.”
LuAnne Kozma is with the Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan. She says state environmental regulations that allow fracking don’t protect the public.
“It is not safe and it cannot be regulated to a safe point," she says. "Regulations are just a way of allowing it. The permit process is just a permit to pollute.”
Another petition drive would amend the state constitution so the Legislature and the governor could no longer block referendums on new laws by putting appropriations into them. Budget acts are the only laws that can’t be overturned by a voter challenge.
There’s already a petition drive underway to reverse the new state law that allows wolf-hunting seasons in the Upper Peninsula.