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Texas Sharon's Bluedaze

Fracking News

Texas Governor signs HB40 into law, guts community rights

May 18, 2015 By TXsharon

HB 40

Faced with widespread municipal opposition, oil and gas industry backs big government power grab

Earthworks | Denton Drilling Awareness Group | Earthjustice | Natural Resources Defense Council

May 18, 2015

Austin, TX – Today Texas Governor Abbott signed HB 40 into law. Written by former ExxonMobil lawyer Shannon Ratliff, the statute forces every Texas municipality wanting common sense limits on oil and gas development to demonstrate its rules are “commercially reasonable”. It effectively overturns a Denton ballot initiative banning fracking that passed last November.

“HB 40 was written by the oil and gas industry, for the oil and gas industry, to prevent voters from holding the oil and gas industry accountable for its impacts,” said Earthworks’ Texas organizer Sharon Wilson. Wilson, who played a key role in the Denton ballot initiative, continued, “It was the oil and gas industry’s contempt for impacted residents that pushed Denton voters to ban fracking in the first place. And now the oil and gas industry, through state lawmakers, has doubled down by showing every city in Texas that same contempt.”

By a 59-41% vote, including 70% of straight ticket Republican voters, the residents of Denton banned hydraulic fracturing within city limits. The ban was a last resort after more than five years of fruitlessly petitioning oil and gas companies, the city, and the state for help.

“By signing HB40 into law, Governor Abbott just declared that industry profits are more important than our health, our homes and our kids,” said Adam Briggle, President of the Denton Drilling Awareness Group and a leader in the Frack Free Denton effort. He continued, “The letter of Texas law now says no city can ‘effectively prevent an oil and gas operation from occurring’, no matter the threat to families’ health and safety or damage to private property.“

The City of Denton is fighting a lawsuit brought against it by the oil and gas industry over its ordinance. Until HB40, attorneys for the city felt fairly confident their ordinance would stand.  The Denton Drilling Awareness Group and Earthworks have intervened in the case in support of the city. They are represented by Earthjustice, attorneys from the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, and the Texas law firm Brown & Hofmeister, LLP.

“The Texas courts have upheld a long tradition of local control, so the Governor and the Legislature took matters into their own hands.  Now, they have capitulated to the greedy but powerful oil and gas industry at the expense of their own constituents’ health, well-being, and property rights,” said Earthjustice attorney Deborah Goldberg, who is co-counsel  for the citizen groups and successfully defended the town of Dryden, NY, in a similar court case.  “We have been proud to represent the proponents of Denton’s ban, and we know they will regroup and fight back against this legislative over-reach.”

“The people of Denton exercised their democratic right to keep a nasty industrial process out of their community–and now big oil and their friends in high places are steamrolling them, along with everyone else in Texas,” said NRDC attorney Dan Raichel, co-counsel for the citizen’s groups. “The interests of a powerful industry should never take priority over the health and safety of American families. Texans should be able to keep dangerous activities and chemicals away from their homes, schools, and hospitals–just as hundreds of other communities across the country have already done.”


For more information:

  • HB40 bill text: http://bit.ly/HB40text

Contact:

  • Sharon Wilson, Earthworks, (940) 389-1622, swilson@earthworksaction.org
  • Adam Briggle, Denton Drilling Awareness Group, (940) 369-5136, dentondag@gmail.com
  • Keith Rushing, Earthjustice, (202) 797-5236, krushing@earthjustice.org
  • Kate Kiely, Natural Resources Defense Council, 212-727-4592, kkiely@nrdc.org

– See more at: http://www.earthworksaction.org/media/detail/texas_governor_signs_hb40_into_law_guts_community_rights#.VVpKQudD0xk

UPDATE: Hard as it may be to believe, some people on Facebook have expressed surprise that Abbott signed this horrible bill. The oil and gas industry has paid him nearly $10 MILLION dollars to do their bidding. Did you really expect him to be on your side?

Screen Shot 2015-05-19 at 6.14.01 PM

About Sharon Wilson

Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.

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Filed Under: HB 40, HB 40, TX Lege 84

Comments

  1. meamous says

    May 18, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    Well, now we have it–the local gubments can’t do anything to protect the peasants!! So, these locals are a bunch of overpaid politicians of no use to the peasants–so let’s fire ’em all. Much tax money will be saved. We are reverting to a high powered centralized, all empowered, gubment.

  2. meamous says

    May 18, 2015 at 10:10 pm

    Does anyone know if this new LAW applies to all these local crooked appraisal districts in each of 200+ counties in Texas?

    • TXsharon says

      May 18, 2015 at 10:11 pm

      I don’t know and I’m not sure anyone knows. The law is so vague it could mean anything.

  3. Patti Hankey says

    May 19, 2015 at 1:33 am

    I guess this means we’re doomed to breathe this poisonous, chemical junk in the air, unless we can afford move?!!!

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