[Team Cuda]

I have to admit, I was not familiar with the mineral dominance doctrine in Texas law. Upon researching it, I am forced to conclude that Denton’s ordinance limiting fracking was in opposition to state law, and should have been overturned. While I still think that the Texas legislature was heavy handed, not being a resident of Denton or Texas, I guess my opinion really doesn’t matter.

[Milton Miteybad]

That's it exactly. The Legislature decided that it couldn't have this municipality or that one enacting ordinances that could, in effect, render mineral estates within their corporate limits completely valueless for lack of access.

When most of the mineral interests in question were reserved (perhaps 50 to 100 years ago), of course, there was no way of knowing that the City of Denton and its subdivisions would come to occupy the surface above them. The mineral interests were there first; the suburban dwellers are the "Johnny-Come-Latelies" in this scenario, although many of these folks think, incorrectly, that they were there first, simply because they moved in one year, and the next a drilling rig shows up nearby.

This is a pretty common issue, really...what used to be open pasture/prairie where you could conduct drilling operations without fear of disturbing anybody or anything is now Subdivision City, USA. A lot of the development in the Barnett Shale has been in urban/suburban areas. Fort Worth didn't see the need for such an ordinance; neither did Arlington, Irving, Grapevine, White Settlement, Benbrook, Keller, Saginaw, Westlake, etc. All of them had the usual restrictions on drilling you might expect, but no outright prohibition. The list of municipalities that were able to adequately regulate oil and gas operations within their jurisdictions is a lot longer than the list of cities where they thought they had to ban drilling altogether (namely, Denton and nobody else.)

So the Legislature is looking at this and saying, "What's Denton's problem? Why is every other city able to find a way to permit and regulate drilling within their city limits, EXCEPT for Denton? What does everybody else know that Denton doesn't?"

Now, as to the Fort Stockton plastic bag ban, I can see where somebody might say that is a case of legislative overreach. Then again, in the past six months I've driven through Fort Stockton a fair number of times, and I didn't notice that there was an inordinate number of abandoned plastic grocery bags floating around. (They might have some big plastic bag problem for all I know, but if so, I didn't notice it on a "just passing through" basis.