AUSTIN — Despite Denton’s vote to prohibit fracking, the state Railroad Commission plans to continue giving permits to companies wanting to drill there, the agency’s chairwoman said Thursday.
Christi Craddick, a Republican, said she was disappointed that voters adopted the ban on hydraulic fracturing — a technique of drilling deep into the ground to release oil and gas.
But she took a confrontational swing in response: “I believe it's my job to give permits, not Denton’s. ... We’re going to continue permitting up there because that’s my job.”
Adam Briggle, vice president of the Denton Drilling Awareness Group, said that outcome should have prodded the commission to “adopt a more conciliatory tone” and to reflect on why citizens were opposed to fracking.
But, from the state, “it’s still just a heavy-handed, push-our-agenda-through approach,” he said. “They should have got a wake-up call, but it’s like they’re still just sleeping.”
Craddick’s remarks, at an event sponsored by the Texas Tribune, came a day after the Texas Oil and Gas Association and the Texas General Land Office sued to prevent Denton from enacting the ordinance in 30 days.
Also, GOP legislators already are considering bills to make such bans illegal.
Craddick said the commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, and fracking advocates could have done a better job explaining the process. Drilling increasingly is taking place near homes and schools as energy production spikes and communities grow.
“When oil and gas came to the Barnett Shale heavily in 2006, we missed as far as an education process in explaining what fracking is, explaining what was going on,” she said. Not doing so, she said, caused the spread of “misinformation about fracking.”
Meanwhile, the new top lobbyist for the Texas oil and gas industry, Todd Staples, who just resigned as agriculture commissioner, said local referendums are not the answer.
“That’s not the way to craft public policy,” Staples said in an interview Thursday, his fourth day on the job as president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association.
“Our thought is that the Railroad Commission has the authority to govern oil and gas activities,” he said.
Staff writer Robert T. Garrett contributed to this report.
Follow Marissa Barnett on Twitter at @marissambarnett
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