A Potentially Massive Win For Fracking In Texas
Gov. Greg Abbot’s signature is all that’s needed to impose a ban on the ability of Texas’ cities to limit potentially harmful oil drilling practices, including hydraulic fracturing, in their jurisdictions.
The measure, which easily passed both houses of the Republican-led Legislature, was welcomed by industry groups as a much-needed rein on “overregulation” and denounced by environmentalists, who said it deprived municipalities of control over their local environments.
Abbot has not involved himself in in the debate over the bill, which the state House passed in April by a vote of 122-18 and the Senate passed 24-7 on May 4. Nevertheless, the governor is expected to sign it.
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The Texas Legislature worked quickly to draw up and pass the law since November, when Denton, a college town about 40 miles north of Dallas-Fort Worth, enacted a law banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in its jurisdiction. Supporters of the Denton ordinance cited fears of earthquakes linked by some studies to fracking and other potential threats to public health and safety.
The state law, however, is based on the rights of oil and gas companies to do as they please on the property they own. But while it forbids bans on underground drilling, it allows some “commercially reasonable” above-ground restrictions, including setting distances between wells and businesses, schools and homes, excessive noise or light after dark and limits on truck traffic.
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Besides forbidding bans on underground activity, the state law includes prohibitions against any bans on fracking, limits on injection rates at wastewater disposal wells and rules requiring drillers to install and regularly inspect underground shutoff valves at some onshore wells for use in emergencies such as violent weather.
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