Industry Blames College Voters for Denton Fracking Ban
Did college students tilt the outcome of Denton’s vote to ban hydraulic fracturing?
That question has stirred debate since the city – home to the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University – became the first in Texas to ban the oilfield technique that sparked a drilling boom and spawned tension in some urban areas.
Overall, the vote wasn’t close. Nearly 59 percent of voters supported the ban, even though its opponents – buoyed by contributions from energy companies – spent far more money. That margin, the ban’s supporters say, amounted to a mandate.
But ban opponents (meaning supporters ...
Comments (20)
Pickles Sorrell
I don't know who the Denton Taxpayers for a Strong Economy, are but they are morons. They hire the guy - this Eppstein fella - to do the analysis on the disastrous pro-fracking campaign that he was paid a King's ransom to run! As a mail box O&G investor who depends on those monthly checks, I followed this race closely. Eppstein is a disaster. He got Senator Deuell beat and many others because frankly he's a lobbyist! Earth to the Denton Taxpayers: when you hire someone to do the autopsy, don't hire the killer to perform the post-mortem.
J Patrick Miculka via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I think it is safe to assume the ban's opponents are almost entirely Republican. Republicans have been trying to disenfranchise the student vote for ages. Their ideology requires opposition to "the other" to maintain power, and students make a convenient scapegoat.
Diana Perea via Texas Tribune on Facebook
College students are a permanent group of residents in Denton, the universities don't pick up and leave.
Peter A. Ravella via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Until today, I didn't know that college students were an illegitimate voting class. Pesky kids messing up our society. We should end their voting rights.
Peter A. Ravella via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Yup, I think you've got that right, J Patrick.
Lynn Proctor via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If I were a homeowner and I saw that nasty, stinking, ugly, property-value-tanking mess out of my backdoor every day, I'd vote against it too. But hey, blame it on college kids, because republican dogma.
Mack Green
What we got here is a failure to Gerrymander.
Morgan Roddy via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I suppose college students won't be seeing too many of the ban's opponents at a Job Fair anytime soon... Kudos to ALL voting residents of Denton for speaking out during an election that was toxic with its low turnout.
Michael Hull
Mack Green wins the internet today!
Marty Jamieson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Statistics don't lie,
Those who manipulate them do......
Mac Mcclure via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Now that we know the Tribune can drill down on voting, when are we going to see the article of all the people that didn't get to vote because of the ID law? Based on all the comments made by your readers they should be easy to find.
Sean Andrews via Texas Tribune on Facebook
And I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids.
Jason C.N. Smith via Texas Tribune on Facebook
You crazy kids get off of our democracy!
ChicoMendez
Funny, but Eppstein is touted as an election guru. But it didn't take a guru to know that the students were going to play an important role. So why wasn't some of that $700,000 anti-ban advertising budget aimed at them? Or aimed at them more effectively? Was he caught off-guard by the turnout? Is he really a guru?
Luis Tapia via Texas Tribune on Facebook
That's my house on the right. Got the letter about fracking in the mail. House was put on the market within 2 weeks. Sold and closed in 30 days. So thankful to be outta there.
alex colvin
It is lame to think the citizens of Denton could not decide for themselves what they want in terns of environmental quality. Blame the college students! What pinhead among the O & G contractors thought that one up?
Andrew Hime via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Everyone in Denton knows the college students don't vote... it's possible more did than usual, but not enough to have a significant impact. They all register to vote back home when they get their licenses, not in Denton. They don't bother to change their registration to Denton because they don't feel it's "home". If the college students were a significant bloc in Denton, we might have elected a single Democrat in the last 20+ years.
Jean Genevie via Texas Tribune on Facebook
When I went to school in Denton, students did have an effect on elections regarding the sale of alcohol ???? but the people who own homes in Denton would have to be idiots to be against the fracking ban, especially since they are installing the facilities in neighborhoods. Republicans will say anything, no matter how false, so that they can continue to do whatever they want regardless of the damage it causes...Sick, ignorant, idiots destroying our state. It is like being led by 13 year old bullies.
Marc McCord
For a fact, most of the citizens of Denton who live inside the districts that supported the ban are NOT students at either UNT or TWU. Industry crybabies can wail all they want about how they got clobbered by a bunch of young college students, but anybody who was a part of that victory saw, firsthand, the number of MUCH older local residents who opposed frac'ing in Denton specifically because they live close enough to it to see how much damage it does to people, property values, quality of life and the environment.
The fact that Denton DAG and Frack Free Denton were outspent by more than 10:1 by the oil and gas industry, yet still won, should tell everything that needs to be said. Apparently, those oil and gas guys are not nearly as intelligent and smart as they think they are, which is why they spent all that money in Denton, as well as San Benito and Mendocino Counties in California, and still lost big in all of those places.
Marc McCord
Andrew Hime via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"Everyone in Denton knows the college students don't vote... it's possible more did than usual, but not enough to have a significant impact. They all register to vote back home when they get their licenses, not in Denton. They don't bother to change their registration to Denton because they don't feel it's "home". If the college students were a significant bloc in Denton, we might have elected a single Democrat in the last 20+ years."
10-4, Eleanor! Your point is well made!