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Breaking: No Action Taken on a Proposal to Repeal Denton, Texas Fracking Ban
Denton’s city council decided not to vote on a repeal of the city’s fracking ban, after almost six hours of discussion on the topic at a public meeting last night.
The vote to repeal the ban was called for shortly after Texas Governor Greg Abbott singed HB40 into law, making Denton’s fracking ban illegal.
Oklahoma’s governor Mary Fallin signed a similar law on May 31, making bans on the fracking industry illegal there too.
The entire city council and Denton’s mayor Chris Watts expressed displeasure with HB40.
The mayor disclosed that the city’s legal counsel advised that repealing the fracking ban is necessary in order to defeat HB40. They were told there are better ways to challenge the law than by defending the fracking ban, and that, if the ban isn’t repealed, both the Texas General Land Office and the Texas Oil and Gas Association, which have sued to block the ban, could ask for a judgment under HB 40 that could result in setting a legal precedent.
“It isn’t just about Denton, anymore,” Councilman Roden told DeSmog before the meeting. ”HB40’s reach goes way behind fracking, it threatens all local ordinances industry doesn’t like. Now every city with oil and gas activity has to grapple with basic questions like, ‘How can we defend a setback greater than 100 feet?’”
Councilman Kevin Roden before the Denton City Council meeting. © 2015 Julie Dermansky
Setbacks are the distance that industry must keep its operations from homes, schools and businesses. The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, has not enacted setback distance requirements, so many municipalities have established their own.
Breaking: Citizens Arrested While Defending Denton, Texas Fracking Ban
Three members of the Denton Drilling Awareness Group were arrested when they refused to move away from the entrance to a fracking site where work began today.
Before arresting them, however, Sergeant Jenkins, a 30-year veteran of the Denton police department, thanked Adam Briggle, a professor at the University of North Texas, and Denton residents Niki Chochrek and Tara Linn Hunter for the work they had done.
Sergeant Jenkins thanks Adam Briggle for his service to the community. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
The three were charged with criminal trespass and released before noon. The arrests come a week after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation that prohibits cities and towns in Texas from banning fracking.
In a prepared statement before his arrest, Briggle wrote:
“An act of civil disobedience requires you to distinguish just laws from unjust laws. I have read much about this and discussed Antigone, Thoreau, and Martin Luther King, Jr. with my students. But I have never acted until now, because never before has that distinction been so clear in my mind. A just law would give those exposed to the harms of fracking a meaningful voice. An unjust law would subordinate those voices to the dictates of the powerful and wealthy. HB 40 is an unjust law.”
Adam Briggle arrested for trespassing at a Vantage frack site. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
Tara Linn Hunter arrested for trespassing at a Vantage frack site. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
Niki Chochrek arrested for trespassing at a Vantage frack site. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
Yesterday, before fracking within the city limits resumed, a group that supports the fracking ban, including Denton Councilpersons Kevin Roden and Keely Briggs, gathered at City Hall.
Rally in front of City Hall in support of the fracking ban. ©2015 Julie Dermansky
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