Posted on 11/05/2014 11:07:06 AM PST by GIdget2004
A North Texas town on Tuesday became the state’s first to ban hydraulic fracturing, setting up a high-profile property rights clash likely to be fought in courtrooms and the Legislature.
Nearly 59 percent of voters in Denton, which sits on the edge of gas-rich Barnett Shale, approved a measure banning hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — the method of oil and gas extraction that has led to a domestic energy boom.
Proponents called the measure a last-ditch effort to address noise and toxic fumes that spew from wells just beyond their backyards, after loopholes and previous zoning decisions rendered changes to the city’s drilling ordinance unenforceable.
“It means we don’t have to worry about what our kids are breathing at city playgrounds,” Cathy McMullen, a nurse and president of Frack Free Denton, a grassroots group that pushed the ban, said in a statement. “It means we don’t have to worry about our property value taking a nose dive because frackers set up shop 200 feet away.”
The ban’s passage will almost certainly trigger litigation, with energy companies and royalty owners arguing that state drilling regulations trump Denton’s and that the city was confiscating mineral rights, which have long been dominant in Texas law.
(Excerpt) Read more at texastribune.org ...
We didn’t vote for it.
Denton’s biggest mistake was taking the I-35 corridor in circa 1978-82 and on as meaning a suburb of Dallas. Things went south shortly thereafter.
I live in Denton. Two lawsuits were filed this morning against the ban.....
Denton don’t need no steeking oil money.
If any properly completed well is “spewing” anything, that’s a problem and any operator would be on it in a minute because that’s costing them money. The spew going on here is political garbage and that’s been constant since the dawn of time.
Denton wants to be Austin north
“Denton wants to be Austin north”
Denton IS what Austin wishes it still was.......
I live in Denton and voted last Friday. The wording on the ballot in regard to the fracking issue was confusing. You had to register a “no” vote to vote for fracking…a “yes” vote was a vote for the ban on fracking. I have no idea how many Dentonites registered a “yes” vote thinking they were voting for fracking when, in effect, they were voting for the ban.
Denton has 2 state operated universities and is chock full of transiate voters who are mind numbed by their professors.
If anything, their property values will only drop for a couple of weeks.
Because that’s about how long a frack job lasts.
After that, it’s just a wellhead sticking out of the ground.
Can you clear something up for me on this one?
I was trying to find information on this, wondering if people had legitimate complaints or were just reacting to hysteria.
One of the fracking proponents said that there were problem with roads being torn up (she said that the oil companies were paying to repair the roads now) and that the fracking was moving closer to homes and schools. When the people reached out for communication, they got a heavy-handed response from the state and the oil companies instead of reassurance.
This was from a profracking person.
So, what’s the truth?
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