Texas Bans Fracking Bans

A ban on bans is one of the most recent developments in the debate over whether to set rules aimed at limiting the environmental impact of fracking.

“On May 18, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a measure that prohibits cities and towns from passing ordinances to prohibit fracking and regulate underground activity, effectively banning fracking bans like the one the city of Denton, TX passed last November,” Newsweek reported.

With this small-government measure, Texas pols are attempting to sweep away conflicting regional fracking regulations that companies say are creating uncertainty in the energy business.

“The legislation — the first such measure to be enacted in the nation — represents a major win for the oil and gas industry and was characterized by the governor as a defense of ‘private property rights’ and a move to limit government bureaucracy and overregulation,” the report said.

Adam Briggle, a University of North Texas in Denton professor and president of the Denton Drilling Awareness Group, which favors fracking bans, seemed to frame the new law as a big-government measure.

“For the past century, cities in Texas have had courts and the state recognize their power to govern themselves, with the understanding that the city knows best how to protect its way of life and its citizens,” he said, per the report. “That tradition has now been undermined.”

The state law meant immediate shifts in Denton, the International Business Times reported:

Natural gas drilling is starting up again in Denton, Texas, despite the city’s 7-month-old ban on hydraulic fracturing. Vantage Energy resumed operations at its Denton well just weeks after Gov. Greg Abbott passed a law prohibiting cities from banning fracking on their home turf. Three activists were arrested at the drill site after attempting to block an access road.

Federal regulators have recently disputed the notion that fracking is unsafe for drinking water. Fracking supporters celebrated the EPA’s announcement in June that it “did not find evidence that these mechanisms have led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States.”

For more fracking news, visit Water Online’s Produced Water Treatment Solutions Center.