{"id":23317,"date":"2015-03-19T06:15:30","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T11:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=23317"},"modified":"2015-03-18T23:58:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T04:58:57","slug":"local-officials-raise-new-questions-as-anti-frack-ban-legislation-makes-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/03\/19\/local-officials-raise-new-questions-as-anti-frack-ban-legislation-makes-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Officials Raise New Questions as Anti-Frack Ban Legislation Makes Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23318\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/photomancer\/15534850617\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-23318\" alt=\"Volunteers watching the polls in November 2014 in Denton, Texas, before voters approved a citywide ban on hydraulic fracturing.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-620x620.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-620x620.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-32x32.jpg 32w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-64x64.jpg 64w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-96x96.jpg 96w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-128x128.jpg 128w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-550x550.jpg 550w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban-470x470.jpg 470w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2015\/03\/denton-frack-ban.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photomancer \/ Flickr<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers watching the polls in November 2014 in Denton, Texas, before voters approved a citywide ban on hydraulic fracturing.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>As legislation written to prevent counties and municipalities from banning hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas activities advances through the Oklahoma House and Senate, some city leaders and their advocates say the measures go too far and could have unintended consequences.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/196597984%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-rxjp4&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><!--more-->&#8216;Mess in Texas&#8217;<\/h3><p>Oklahoma lawmakers have filed at least eight bills that would prohibit municipal or county bans \u2014 or <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/03\/09\/amended-bill-would-prohibit-cities-and-towns-from-effectively-banning-oil-and-gas-activities\/\">effective bans<\/a> \u2014 on oil and gas drilling, production and related activities like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The legislation differs in the details, but the motivation is the same.<\/p><p>\u201cA fracking ban is a drilling ban,\u201d House Speaker Jeff Hickman said on the House floor during the March 16 session.<\/p><p>The Republican from Fairview authored one of the anti-frack ban bills \u2014 House Bill 2178 \u2014 which, like the other legislative efforts, was inspired by the fracking ban enacted in the city of Denton, Texas.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a real mess in Texas,\u201d Hickman told fellow lawmakers.<\/p><p>During the November 2014 election, about <a href=\"http:\/\/results.enr.clarityelections.com\/TX\/Denton\/53684\/149586\/Web01\/en\/summary.html\">59 percent of Denton voters<\/a> \u2014 roughly 15,000 residents \u2014 marked their ballots to pass a referendum banning fracking within the city limits.<\/p><p>Denton\u2019s fracking ban touched off legal and legislative challenges in Texas and spooked oil industry supporters north of the border in Oklahoma, where Hickman and other top lawmakers vowed to head off problems before they started.<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018Burdensome on the business\u2019<\/h3><p>Lawmakers in Oklahoma worry that anti-fracking enthusiasm could take root in college towns like Stillwater and Norman, where there have been calls for tougher oil and gas rules, as well as <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/12\/19\/crowd-rallies-for-clean-water-as-norman-committee-considers-new-drilling-rules\/\">demonstrations about pipelines<\/a>.<\/p><p>Norman Mayor Cindy Rosenthal says city officials have been revising outdated oil and gas ordinances \u2014 updates, she says, that address issues such as fencing, insurance and setbacks.<\/p><p>\u201cOur end goal really is to provide for the health, public safety and welfare of our community,\u201d she says.<\/p><p>Hickman and the authors of anti-frack ban legislation say their bills preserve this authority.<\/p><p>\u201cBy passing this law, we\u2019re giving the authority on traffic, noise, odors, setbacks \u2014 all of that to municipalities or counties,\u201d Hickman said on the House floor.<\/p><p>Hickman didn\u2019t grant StateImpact\u2019s requests for an interview, but Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman did. The Republican and ranking state senator is a co-sponsor of the speaker\u2019s bill and has authored his own anti-frack ban legislation \u2014 Senate Bill 809.<\/p><p>\u201dIf cities were allowed to ban, it would be very burdensome on the business,\u201d Bingman says. \u201cIt would also affect mineral owners.\u201d<\/p><p>Oil companies, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.okstatechamber.com\/news\/oil-and-gas-drilling-bill-protects-municipalities-and-industry\">the State Chamber<\/a> and the Coalition of Oklahoma Surface and Mineral Owners are pushing for the legislation. Those groups say oil production techniques like fracking are essential to unlocking lucrative oil and gas deposits from shale rock.<\/p><p>Bingman says oil and natural gas are property, and it\u2019s the state\u2019s responsibility to protect the rights \u2014 and methods \u2014 needed to access that property.<\/p><p>\u201cThis bill preempts any local community on the banning oil and gas drilling within their communities,\u201d Bingman says. \u201cIt does allow them to continue with reasonable rules and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22326\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22326\" alt=\"Demonstrators outside the Norman City Hall before a city council committee met to discuss changes to oil and gas drilling rules. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-NormanRally001_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-NormanRally001_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-NormanRally001_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-NormanRally001_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-NormanRally001_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Demonstrators outside the Norman City Hall before a city council committee met to discuss changes to oil and gas drilling rules.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3>Taking on \u201ctakings\u201d<\/h3><p>\u201cReasonable\u201d is a term used in the language of the proposed legislation and related discussions about anti-frack ban legislation, but city officials and lawmakers alike have suggested the ambiguous word could prove problematic.<\/p><p>\u201cObviously, we have a substantial difference between what citizens would consider reasonable versus what oil and gas would consider reasonable,\u201d Williams said to Speaker Hickman during debate on the House floor.<\/p><p>Stillwater city councilor Gina Noble raised similar concerns in a February interview with StateImpact. Norman Mayor Rosenthal says the vagueness is \u201cproblematic.\u201d<\/p><p>\u201cReasonableness is in the eye of the beholder,\u201d she says.<\/p><p>Local officials are also worried about language specific to Senate versions of the anti-frack ban legislation \u2014 including Hickman\u2019s SB 809 and SB 468, authored by Sen. Bryce Marlatt, R-Woodward \u2014 that lowers the threshold of an oil and gas &#8220;taking,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/takings\">a term<\/a> describing government seizure of property for public use.<\/p><p>Any municipal or county action that \u201csubstantially\u201d increases the costs of oil and gas operations or reduces the market value of oil and gas deposits \u201cshall be considered a taking,\u201d according to the language of SB 809.<\/p><p>\u201cA lot of alarm bells went off when takings were mentioned,\u201d says Carolyn Stager, executive director of the Oklahoma Municipal League, a nonprofit group that advocates on behalf of local governments.<\/p>\n<h3>Water worries<\/h3><p>Rosenthal is most alarmed by a word that\u2019s not used in leading anti-frack ban legislation: water. The bills don\u2019t give cities, towns and counties the authority to pass oil-drilling rules that protect water and water supplies like Norman\u2019s Lake Thunderbird.<\/p><p>\u201cYou\u2019re talking about 175,000 people who depend on that water supply, and the increasing number of oil and gas wells being drilled in that area are cause for concern,\u201d Rosenthal says.<\/p><p>The 2015 legislative session is ongoing, and municipal officials and their advocates are optimistic they will have some role in shaping the final language of anti-frack ban legislation.<\/p><p>Rosenthal says Norman isn\u2019t considering a ban on fracking, and a ban is not something she would ever push for personally. But she\u2019s concerned that the legislation \u2014 or a court\u2019s interpretation of the legislation \u2014 could block a lot more than local bans on fracking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As legislation written to prevent counties and municipalities from banning hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas activities advances through the Oklahoma House and Senate, some city leaders and their advocates say the measures go too far and could have unintended consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":23318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[630,238,270,631],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23317"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23330,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23317\/revisions\/23330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}