North Texas University is in Denton and at this year's graduation, the speaker was Gov. Greg Abbott. Students tried to get the University to stop him from coming, then a huge number of them graduating, boycotted the gathering and there was a number of students in the upper rows with signs and making comments against Abbott, and they were moved out by NTU security.
The reasons they gave for not wanting Abbott there, was, his stand on not recognizing gay marriage, and being against abortion.
I watched a film of that graduation, and the professors sitting behind Abbott as he was speaking, looked glum and not a smile among them.
If I had a child of college age, he/she wouldn't be going there. It is a bastion of liberal causes.
Denton COUNTY, as a whole, is a conservative county who always votes for Republican leaders.
The city of Denton, however, has that big university mindset and the city leaders are the ones who voted that fracking ban in. I thought they were nuts to do that but liberals don't know facts about fracking, so they voted for that ban. I thought at the time, that would not stand, there would be lawsuits, which there were, and now the state has passed the law in this legislature session, that fracking cannot be banned in any public location.
A private owner of land is his/hers and if the owner doesn't want his/her land drilled, of course, drilling can't happen. I don't know of any private land holder who has refused a well or wells on his/her land. The owner can end up with a large amount of money if the well(s) is/are successful.
Also, Governor Greg Abbott, in his wheelchair, is a giant among men. He just signed open carry for Texas. Taxes were also lowered in this session and he signed that into law.
I actually live in the City of Denton. The “city leaders” did not vote in the ban, it was an initiative and was passed by 59% of those who voted. The City Council could have passed the ban on their own, but they had all said they would support whatever the people of Denton decided. That required a vote.
I was surprised to find that the Council could repeal something voted on by the people, but from what I understand, if the genesis of a vote is an initiative, the Council can repeal it. What to do about the ban has been a very continuous issue. Most of the ban supporters want to fight the lawsuits brought by the oil/gas industries until the end. Legal council for DAG, the anti-fracking group in Denton, was told by its legal council that a repeal was probably the best bet. City of Denton legal staff also felt the odds of winning the lawsuits were not on their side and recommended repeal.
The Denton City Council was between a hard place and a hard place with this one.