Texas cities wouldn’t be able to ban oil drilling under bill

LAUREN ETTER

AUSTIN (Bloomberg) -- Texas cities would no longer be able to ban oil and gas companies from drilling inside municipal limits under a bill lawmakers sent to Governor Greg Abbott.

Final passage of the legislation in the state Senate on Monday is a win for the oil and gas companies. The industry considered the measure one of its top priorities of the year after a suburb of Dallas voted to ban fracking.

“It’s going to be one of the most important bills that passes the legislature this session,” said Bill Stevens, a lobbyist for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.

The Texas legislation signifies a broader struggle taking place in the state legislature and across America over cities’ ability to enact laws that are more restrictive than state laws. Municipalities in several states have been under pressure to defend their rights to local control on issues such as gun control, gay rights and environmental regulations.

Abbott, a newly elected Republican, has indicated he’ll sign the oil and gas legislation.

The governor has vowed to rein in local ordinances that he says create a confusing patchwork of regulation for businesses. Soon after Abbott took office in January he said the state was becoming “California-ized” as cities passed measures such as bans on plastic bags and cutting down trees.

Municipalities in Texas are fighting hard hard to preserve their rights to local control as Democratic leaning cities clash with the more rural-led Republican majorities in the legislature.

The oil industry has been on the defensive since residents of Denton, a suburb of Dallas, voted last year to ban fracking within the city’s limits. Residents had said they were tired of wells being drilled sometimes fewer than 200 ft away from homes, and of concerns that fracking was contaminating their drinking water and causing earthquakes.

After voters passed the ban, Denton was sued by the state and the Texas Oil and Gas Association. Both argued that the Texas constitution and state law preempted the right of cities to enact such local ordinances.

Denton has maintained that it believed it could regulate matters to preserve the health, safety and welfare of its residents. The two lawsuits are pending.

“Pretty much, it means that the ban will be unenforceable,” said Chris Watts, the mayor of Denton. The city is considering whether it can rewrite its ordinance to comply with the legislation, he said.