Texas District Court Dismisses Challenge of Denton’s Hydraulic Fracturing Ban

On September 4, 2015, the 16^th Judicial District Court of Denton County dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Texas Oil and Gas Association against the City of Denton challenging the City Council’s Ordinance No. 2014-01 establishing a hydraulic fracturing ban.

In November 2014, residents of Denton approved a ballot initiative to ban hydraulic fracturing within the city’s limits. The Texas Oil and Gas Association and Texas General Land Office separately filed lawsuits seeking a declaration that the hydraulic fracturing ban was preempted by existing state regulations.

As a response to the City of Denton’s initiative, the Texas House of Representatives introduced H.B. 40 “relating to the exclusive jurisdiction of [Texas] to regulate oil and gas operations in this state and the express preemption of local regulation of those operations” in March 2015. H.B. 40 was signed into law on May 18, 2015, and took effect immediately. After the new law became effective, the Denton City Council repealed the hydraulic fracturing ban ordinance in June 2015. Therefore, the parties to the lawsuits filed joint motions to dismiss the lawsuits due to the irrelevance of the legal matters.

According to the City of Denton’s statement, “[i]t is anticipated that a dismissal order in the [Texas General Land Office] will also be signed in the near future.”

Further information about the case Texas Oil and Gas Association v. City of Denton is available at docket no. 14-08933-431, and for the case Texas General Land Office v. City of Denton at docket no. 15-02058-362. 

Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow

09/14/2015

Denton, Texas, Discusses Drilling Ordinance to Comply with New State Law

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:

https://denton-tx.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2391677&GUID=1570115C-327E-4E00-8B01-8830C1C79FCE&FullText=1. 

Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow

07/29/2015