Posted on 11/13/2014 8:39:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
A week after a historic vote to ban hydraulic fracturing (or fracking — the controversial drilling method that forces oil and gas from shale formations with pressurized water, sand and a host of chemicals), Denton, Texas, has been told the state will continue to issue drilling permits within the city limits.
“It’s my job to give permits, not Denton’s,” said Christi Craddick, chairwoman of the Railroad Commission of Texas. “We’re going to continue permitting up there because that’s my job.”
Also known as the Texas Railroad Commission or TRC, the three-member state body actually has no jurisdiction over the rails, but it does regulate the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipelines and uranium mining in the Lone Star State. TRC commissioner is an elected office; at present, all three members are Republicans.
Though other municipalities have tried to regulate local drilling, Denton, a town of 121,000 in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, became the first in Texas to ban fracking outright when they approved the prohibition by 18 percentage points Tuesday. Denton already has more than 270 wells inside its borders, and area residents have complained of health problems they say are tied to hydrocarbon extraction.
Concerned that a local law could set a precedent, oil and gas companies pumped nearly $700,000 into efforts to defeat the anti-fracking measure — outspending ban advocates 10 to 1.
Within days of passage, industry representatives went to court, seeking an injunction against Denton’s law. But now it is the town that must lawyer up to defend its voters against the TRC. Denton spokeswoman Lindsey Baker told the AP that the town has a $4 million fund to fight the challenges, and Mayor Chris Watts has said his administration will “exercise the legal remedies that are available” to defend their ban.
Denton joined voters in San Benito County, California, and Athens, Ohio, in approving fracking bans on Tuesday.
"What we would like to see is that local communities, the people most vulnerable to the risks of fracking, are empowered to have a greater say over this," said Adam Briggle of Frack Free Denton, a group that advocated for the ban, in the Los Angeles Times.
Oil and gas lawyers say this about honoring industry mineral rights. The state Railroad Commission says it is a matter of jurisdiction. But Mayor Watts saw it a bit differently.
"The democratic process is alive and well in Denton," Watts said in a post-vote statement. "Hydraulic fracturing, as determined by our citizens, will be prohibited in the Denton city limits."
The ban on fracking is set to go into effect Dec. 2.
Approved by 18%, I wonder did they know the mayor was willing to throw 4 million of the cities funds down the toilet?
It’s a college town with one great big and one medium sized state universities.
So liberals who have no actual long term interest or roots in the city are voting to set policy for those who do? I understand the majority of Texas is a great place except for the college and university areas.
The local community should be able to set its own laws and rules as regards land uses. This is not good for smaller more local government.
Denton is the “Berkeley” of North Texas.
College town. The little idiots pulled another Obama thing. That’s all. . The Texas railroad commission is the big Kahuna and will crush them. It will be approved by the Texas supreme court.
In Texas, landowners typically own their mineral rights. If the city can seize their property and deprive the owner of it, do you advocate that they come steal your delivery truck? Your bank account? Your house?
And don’t even play the “city will reimburse the land owner for his mineral rights” game. They couldn’t possibly raise that amount of cash.
And it’s written all over the face of the daughter
Of the mayor of Marble Falls
When she winds up in Denton town doing the Valium waltz
cities and counties exist as legal entities at the pleasure of the state, they can be abolished and changed by the state
looked like an endless stripmall along I35E to me..
That’s not the argument the State seems to be making. The seem to be saying that local people cannot make their own decisions. It is not the city that is telling people what they can and can’t do in this situation, it is the State, more specifically a tiny branch of State bureaucracy.
Did a majority of the LANDOWNERS vote against fracking?
Or just a bunch of college kids?
Texas railroad commission. ..a tiny branch of the state bureaucracy. Got it.
You ain’t from Texas I see. They realistically wield more power than the Governor. And no. Denton won’t get to tell a property owner that they have just condemned their property rights. The state will protect the land owner. This isn’t a communal place.
I pretty much surmised that Denton was a satellite enclave of Austin... I could never imagine a true Texan being against fracking.
Then I suggest they move.
California has areas with oil derricks but homes aren't located nearby. Anyone with commonsense knows that you leave such an area.
That was pretty much my first question: Who owns the mineral rights?
Denton is 88 square miles. Texas is 270,000 square miles.
I don’t think the ban, even if it stands, will make much difference.
In Texas, we’re not into this “local thing”, where some leftist local town decides to “make a statement”.
If we allowed ourselves to get walked on regarding drilling, then we’d have to do the same when Denton and Austin outlaw possession of firearms...is there any difference?
The local community has limits to what they control.
They cannot change the speed limit of I-35 down to 25 mph either.
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