The fracking industry has been widely deregulated at the federal level, with exemptions from key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, among others. And too often, state regulation of the practice is lax, with state regulators unable or unwilling to crack down.
As fracking and drilling edges closer and closer to the places where people live, work, and play, communities in the frontlines of the fracking rush have been forced to defend themselves from oil and gas industry abuse.
In communities across the country, people are standing up to this powerful industry, passing bans and limits on fracking and defending their right to do so in court.
When oil & gas industry tries to bully communities into backing down, communities are fighting back—and winning:
NY In 2011, the Dryden, NY Town Board voted to clarify that oil and gas development—including fracking—would not be permitted within town borders under the town’s zoning ordinance. The town was one of the first communities in New York State to do so.
Six weeks later, Dryden was sued by a billionaire-owned oil and gas company. The town fought and won three rounds in court, going all the way up to the state's highest court. Its ban will remain in effect.
In recent years, more than 170 communities in New York State have joined Dryden in passing bans or moratoriums on fracking.
PA When Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett—the recipient of nearly $1 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry—signed a pro-fracking, anti-community law known as Act 13 in 2012, communities fought back.
A group of seven municipalities, Delaware Riverkeeper Network and several citizens sued to overturn a portion of the law that sought to strip communities of their right to use local zoning laws to limit oil and gas development and associated industry infrastructure. In a landmark 2013 court victory, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court sided with the municipalities, handing the oil and gas industry a big defeat.
OH The city of Munroe Falls is fighting to uphold several local laws regulating oil and gas drilling in the city after an oil and gas company began operations in a residential neighborhood
The city won in the lower court, but lost the subsequent appeal.
Both sides are awaiting a final decision by the state Supreme Court, which would have ramifications for communities around the state.
CO In July 2012, Longmont City Council passed a set of regulations governing fracking within city limits. And in November 2012, voters approved an all-out ban of the practice.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association is suing to overturn both efforts. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who drank a glass of fracking fluid with a group of oil and gas industry executives and described it as “ritual like,” is joining the industry lawsuit.
Undeterred by powerful forces aligned against them, voters in four more Colorado communities—Lafayette, Broomfield, Boulder and Fort Collins—passed bans or moratoriums on fracking in the November 2013 election. Community members were outspent more than 30 to 1. In spite of this, all four ballot measures passed.
CA In 2013, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a controversial bill allowing fracking to proceed in the state without an environmental review. Concerned, communities in the state have started to take matters into their own hands.
In February 2014, the City of Los Angeles unanimously voted to approve a moratorium on fracking and other unconventional oil extraction techniques, becoming the largest city in the country to pass such a measure. Local elected officials are in the process of adopting, or have adopted, fracking bans or moratoriums in Beverly Hills, Compton and Culver City and in Santa Cruz and Butte counties. Initiatives banning fracking are on the ballot in San Benito and Santa Barbara Counties.
Similar actions by additional communities are expected, because California law allows municipalities to adopt oil and gas industry regulations as well as to prohibit the industry through zoning.
TX In oil-and-gas-friendly Texas, communities are growing weary of the industry’s creeping presence into residential areas.
In December 2013, the City of Dallas approved a strict zoning ordinance that prohibits wells less than 1,500 feet from homes, in what amounted to a de-facto fracking ban in the city.
An effort to ban the practice is underway in the City of Denton, home to 120,000 residents and 270 gas wells.
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Frack Targets & Resources
Learn about shale targets and water resources at risk in some of the states affected by fracking:
What do you do when the oil and gas industry forces its way into your community, threatening your health, your way of life, and your future? Join together. Fight back.