On July 28, 2015, the
Denton City Council held a discussion concerning proposed amendments to the
Denton Development Code, specifically to subchapters 5, 16 and 22 relating to
Gas Well Drilling and Production, Definitions and Procedures. This discussion
is a step toward the local governments compliance with new state legislation
“relating to the exclusive jurisdiction of [state regulators] to regulate oil
and gas operations in this state and the express preemption of local regulation
of those regulations.”
In November 2014,
Denton City residents voted to ban shale gas extraction using hydraulic
fracturing. On May 18, 2015, however, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law
preventing local governments from banning hydraulic fracturing for shale gas
extraction. According to the law, state regulators have exclusive jurisdiction
to regulate oil and gas operations. Local governments, therefore, “may not
enact or enforce an ordinance or other measure, that bans, limits, or otherwise
regulates an oil and gas operation within the boundaries or extraterritorial
jurisdiction of [local governments],” except for provisions relating to fire
and emergency response, traffic, lights, noise, imposing notice and setback
requirements.
Following the enactment
of the state law, both Texas
Oil and Gas Association and Texas
General Office filed lawsuits against the City of
Denton challenging the hydraulic fracturing moratorium on the grounds of said
law. On June 17, 2015, the Denton City Council approved Ordinance No.
2015-192 repealing Initiative Ordinance No. 2014-01 prohibiting hydraulic
fracturing.
Further background
information is available at:
Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
07/29/2015
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