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As 1st municipal fracking ban in Texas takes effect, towns test state's oil and gas supremacy
StarTribune ^ | 30 Nov 2014 | EMILY SCHMALL

Posted on 11/30/2014 9:51:53 PM PST by shove_it

RENO, Texas — A Texas hamlet shaken by its first recorded earthquake last year and hundreds since then is among communities now taking steps to challenge the oil and gas industry's traditional supremacy over the right to frack.

Reno Mayor Lyndamyrth Stokes said spooked residents started calling last November: "I heard a boom, then crack! The whole house shook. What was that?" one caller asked. The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that Reno, a community about 50 miles west of Dallas, had its first earthquake.

Seismologists have looked into whether the tremors are being caused by disposal wells on the outskirts of Reno, where millions of gallons of water produced by hydraulic fracturing are injected every day. Reno took the first step toward what Stokes believes will be an outright ban by passing a law in April limiting disposal well activity to operators who can prove the injections won't cause earthquakes.

Reno and other cities are taking their lead from Denton, a university town north of Dallas where the state's first ban on fracking within city limits takes effect Tuesday. The Denton ban has become a "proxy for this big war between people who want to stop fracking and people who want to see it happen," said Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

It also has become a referendum on Texas cities' rights to halt drilling...

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: energy; politics; texas

1 posted on 11/30/2014 9:51:53 PM PST by shove_it
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To: shove_it

Boo freakin hoo. Move to the States that don’t allow fracking.


2 posted on 11/30/2014 9:58:14 PM PST by sagar
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To: sagar
"Reno took the first step toward what Stokes believes will be an outright ban by passing a law in April limiting disposal well activity to operators who can prove the injections won't cause earthquakes."

Prove a negative?
3 posted on 11/30/2014 10:00:26 PM PST by clearcarbon
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To: shove_it

Good luck with that. Houston tried to do the same thing with the state’s supremacy clause on firearms by banning gun shows. They got slapped down by every single level of the court system as the clause is clearly written and ended up having to pay a huge fine.

Then they had the gall to come ask the state legislature for money to fill the hole in their budget caused by their deliberate defiance of state laws passed by the state legislature. You can probably guess what the answer of the annoyed legislators was.


4 posted on 11/30/2014 10:28:03 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: shove_it

Witches on broomsticks and goblins.....

Oooohhhhhhhhhh!!!!


5 posted on 11/30/2014 11:00:27 PM PST by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: shove_it

“I had a crack pipe, then boom!! Whole house shook Lawdy!! What was that?!”

That’s probably the extent of the ‘complaint’.


6 posted on 12/01/2014 12:22:28 AM PST by bakeneko
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To: shove_it
The oil companies should abide by the desire of Reno, TX.
Oil and oil products are evil so eliminate all of them from Reno.
7 posted on 12/01/2014 1:00:56 AM PST by ASA Vet (Don't assume Shahanshah Obama will allow another election.)
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To: shove_it

And the epicenter of the quake was located where?


8 posted on 12/01/2014 4:22:49 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: shove_it
Reno, a community about 50 miles west of Dallas

Reno, Texas is about 100 miles Northeast of Dallas.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Reno,+TX/Dallas,+TX/@33.2277927,-97.3160694,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x864a58ab2a65145d:0x80fcf6d5e9e622ca!2m2!1d-95.4624548!2d33.6631622!1m5!1m1!1s0x864c19f77b45974b:0xb9ec9ba4f647678f!2m2!1d-96.8009781!2d32.7802618

I guess the author thinks the fault lines that have existed long before the State did in the area just magically appeared without any prior earthquakes.


9 posted on 12/01/2014 5:14:54 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: shove_it

Just because it was the first earthquake “recorded” doesn’t mean it’s the first earthquake ever.


10 posted on 12/01/2014 5:28:57 AM PST by Vermont Lt (Ebola: Death is a lagging indicator.)
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To: shove_it
Fracking doesn't "cause" earthquakes. Tectonic plate shifts cause earthquakes.

Fracking may "lubricate" the fault, so that smaller earthquakes happen more often. But, the alternative is: let the pressure build up, and released in one big earthquake.

I think I would choose smaller earthquakes, more often.

11 posted on 12/01/2014 6:46:16 AM PST by justlurking (tagline removed, as demanded by Admin Moderator)
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To: Vermont Lt

“.....millions of gallons of water produced by hydraulic fracturing are injected every day.”.......

Not to worry folks, with odumbo’s newly approved EPA regulations on the use of WATER, the fracking industry may be a thing of the past. Perhaps not right away but when they EXPAND those regulations, it more than likely will be included.


12 posted on 12/01/2014 6:49:19 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: shove_it
A Texas hamlet shaken by its first recorded earthquake last year and hundreds since then is among communities now taking steps to challenge the oil and gas industry's traditional supremacy over the right to frack. Reno Mayor Lyndamyrth Stokes said spooked residents started calling last November: "I heard a boom, then crack! The whole house shook. What was that?"

Lyndamyrth can frack off.

13 posted on 12/01/2014 6:51:19 AM PST by Lazamataz (Proudly Deciding Female Criminal Guilt By How Hot They Are Since 1999 !)
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To: DaveA37

Not for nuthin, but if the price drops much more fracking will be an asterisk on the history of America’s financial collapse.


14 posted on 12/01/2014 7:34:38 AM PST by Vermont Lt (Ebola: Death is a lagging indicator.)
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To: shove_it

With all the fracking going on in Japan and Alaska I’m surprised they don’t have a lot more quakes.


15 posted on 12/01/2014 11:49:45 AM PST by dearolddad (/i>)
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To: thackney

Thackney

I’m curious so a quick question ... Do Tectonic (sp) plates have a measurable depth? (Median) and can we drill a hole to that depth?

TT


16 posted on 12/01/2014 5:00:23 PM PST by TexasTransplant (Idiocracy used to just be a Movie... Live every day as your last...one day you will be right)
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To: thackney

Sorry ... The Faults or basically from the top of the highest mountain to the bottom of the Marianas Trench is there an equivalent of a “Sea Level” for Tectonic Plates and can we drill that deep?

TT


17 posted on 12/01/2014 5:05:29 PM PST by TexasTransplant (Idiocracy used to just be a Movie... Live every day as your last...one day you will be right)
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To: TexasTransplant

A simple summary can be found at the wiki for explanations, but the lithosphere is the upper and solid part of the mantle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithosphere

It is broken up into the tectonic plates. The depth is typically consider the limit of where this is still brittle material and not yet thick fluid. Understand it is not sudden transition, but it just keeps getting hotter until the rock is soft as you go deeper. About 1,800°F and the rock gets soft enough to consider the end of the lithosphere or the bottom of the plates.

The depth of this varies from 25 miles to ~175 miles deep. Ocean is typically thinner.

The Kola Superdeep Borehole is the deep drilling ever done, ~7.5 miles deep.


18 posted on 12/02/2014 4:56:01 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: thackney

Thank you

Good study material

TT


19 posted on 12/02/2014 1:02:48 PM PST by TexasTransplant (Idiocracy used to just be a Movie... Live every day as your last...one day you will be right)
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