Jim Tuttle/The Dallas Morning News
Litigation over the passage of a hydraulic fracturing ban in Denton Tuesday night has already begun.
The Texas Oil and Gas Association filed for an injunction in state court in Denton Wednesday morning to stop the ban from being implemented. And the Texas General Land Office, which controls oil and gas leases that fund public education, has sued the town too, calling the ban, “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.”
“TXOGA believes that the courts of this State should give a prompt and authoritative answer on whether Denton voters had the authority under state law to enact a total ban on hydraulic fracturing within the city limits,” attorney Thomas R. Phillips, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas said in a statement. “A ban on hydraulic fracturing is inconsistent with state law and therefore violates the Texas Constitution.”
Denton is the first municipality in Texas to vote in a ban prohibiting hydraulic fracturing, which is used to extract oil and natural gas from shale formations.
Similar ordinances in other parts of the country have met with limited success in the courts. One exception is New York where the state supreme court recently upheld towns’ rights to prohibit oil and gas drilling.
Litigation over the fracking ban has been widely anticipated. And Denton city officials have said they are prepared to defend the ordinance in court.
Frack Free Denton, the advocacy group that campaigned for the ban, said it was preparing for a long legal fight.
“Unfortunately, industry has met our expectations. They have apparently learned nothing from last night’s landslide vote. They have taken no time to reflect on their own irresponsible actions that brought the people of Denton to this point,” read a statement from the group’s board.
Read the oil and gas association’s lawsuit here: