ATLANTA — A proposal to regulate a sometimes controversial form of drilling in Georgia cleared a key hurdle Tuesday.

Rep. John Meadows, R-Calhoun, says his bill seeks to put in place protections for the state’s water resources — before the oil and gas industry starts using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

“Until the price of gas goes up, there won’t be any drilling for gas,” Meadows said at a recent committee meeting.

But that day, he said, is likely to come.

“We’ve been at high gas prices before. We’ll be at them again some day,” he said.

But since fracking isn’t likely to happen anytime soon in Georgia, industry representatives argued that legislators are getting ahead of themselves.

Hunter Hopkins, executive director of the Georgia Petroleum Council, said the measure seeks to address an issue that is “20, 30 years down the road, if it ever even shows up.”

Still, there was has been some interest shown in the Conasauga shale formation located in northwest Georgia, which is believed to hold as much as 625 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

That interest prompted nearly a dozen local governments to urge state legislators to get ahead of the oil and gas industry.

Meadows’ bill includes more oversight over the permitting process and imposes rules and regulations on groundwater monitoring and public notification, among other things.

It would also would impose a state tax on oil and gas production and empower local governments to levy their own tax.

The proposal was voted out of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee Tuesday and goes on to the House Rules Committee, which Meadows heads.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.