Denton resident Shirley Price called me to say that she’d received a letter from the Texas Royalty Council urging her to call her city leaders to oppose the proposed ban on hydraulic fracturing.
The public hearing on the ban is expected during the Denton City Council’s July 15 meeting.
Price called because she had not seen mention of the council’s letter in our story about the latest petition in town seeking support of fracking.
The letter, which is posted on the council’s website, suggests that Denton may not be legally able to hold the frack ban election under its city charter. The letter also suggests a court injunction against such an election was possible. Neither the Texas Oil and Gas Association, the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Associations nor the many attorneys I have visited with have suggested this possibility.
For the record, the relationship between the longstanding TIPRO and the royalty council is unclear. The oldest entries on the council website date to 2008 — a little post-Barnett Shale boon, and more at the start of the Eagle Ford rush.
Price thought Denton mineral owners were getting these letters regardless of where their holdings were. She has holdings in Montague County. As such, a ban in Denton wouldn’t affect her mineral income.
The way the letter is written also makes it difficult for the reader to keep other facts straight. Denton’s proposed ban is not on drilling, but on fracking. The recent Dryden decision shows the argument over a city using its local powers to regulate (zoning, public health and safety) as a “regulatory taking” is far from settled.
The connection between a frack ban in Denton and local job loss is likely tenuous, since no oil and gas companies are based here. The connection between a frack ban in Denton and higher taxes is also tenuous, since both the city’s and school’s property tax base are far more diversified. In many meetings, I’ve watched the city staff plan for the obsolescence in mineral wealth at the airport.
Given the lack of transparency in the state budget, a claim about the impact on tuition needs to be examined for its full effects. The UNT System doesn’t have property holdings like UT. Some of the state’s severance tax goes into the rainy day fund, the rest goes into the general fund, which helps fund higher education.
As a call to action, Price told me she could appreciate the letter’s stance. I found it interesting that she also said that she didn’t think there should be fracking in the city limits, especially with emerging science on its impacts to drinking water and earthquakes.