Legislature Sends Anti-Frack Ban Bill to the Governor

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Joe Wertz / StateImpact Oklahoma

Oklahoma City residents packed a public meeting about an oil company's proposal to drill near Lake Hefner, a city water supply. Residents were concerned about water and air pollution, truck traffic and noise, and earthquakes.

The Oklahoma Legislature is sending a message to towns, cities and counties: Don’t try to ban fracking.

Oklahoma legislators were inspired by the November 2014 voter-approved city fracking ban enacted in Denton, Texas. And, like their counterparts in Texas, they were determined to make such action illegal.

During the 2015 legislative session, at least eight bills were filed to prevent municipalities from creating rules or zoning regulations that would ban — or effectively ban — hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas activities.

The oil industry and mineral owners championed the effort. Some officials in cities like Stillwater and Norman attacked the bills as a state overreach into municipal authority, and questioned vague legislative language they said could prevent them from enacting zoning ordinances to reduce traffic, noise, dust and other ordinances. Lawmakers insisted the measures preserved municipal zoning authority, provided the local rules were “reasonable.”

In debate on the House and Senate floor, anti-frack ban bill authors also argued that state regulators at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission should be the sole arbiters of oil and gas rules.

Proponents say SB 809 will even out a patchwork of local oil and gas rules. On the Senate floor, state Sen. Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, said cities always do things differently — oil and gas shouldn’t be an exception.

“County sales tax, liquor, jails, free fairs, wireless fees, pari-mutuel betting, state insurance, ad-valorem, all of those are examples of allowing cities and counties to do what’s best for their locales,” she said.

Senate Bill 809, authored by Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, survived and advanced through both houses. The measure found final passage May 21 is headed to Gov. Mary Fallin’s desk, where most capitol insiders expect it to be signed into law.