{"id":23951,"date":"2015-05-22T10:28:53","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T15:28:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=23951"},"modified":"2015-05-22T10:34:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T15:34:04","slug":"legislature-sends-anti-frack-ban-bill-to-the-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/05\/22\/legislature-sends-anti-frack-ban-bill-to-the-governor\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislature Sends Anti-Frack Ban Bill to the Governor"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_22342\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22342\" alt=\"Attendees had questions and concerns about water and air pollution, truck traffic and noise, and earthquakes.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-hefner-frack-meeting115_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-hefner-frack-meeting115_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-hefner-frack-meeting115_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-hefner-frack-meeting115_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2014\/12\/20141218-hefner-frack-meeting115_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oklahoma City residents packed a public meeting about an oil company&#39;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.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>The Oklahoma Legislature is sending a message to towns, cities and counties: Don\u2019t try to ban fracking.<!--more--><\/p><p>Oklahoma legislators were inspired by the November 2014 voter-approved city fracking ban enacted in Denton, Texas. And, like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2015\/05\/20\/408156948\/new-texas-law-makes-local-fracking-bans-illegal\">their counterparts in Texas<\/a>, they were determined to make such action illegal.<\/p><p>During the 2015 legislative session, at least eight bills were filed to prevent municipalities from creating rules or zoning regulations that would ban \u2014 or effectively ban \u2014 hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas activities.<\/p><p>The oil industry and mineral owners championed the effort. Some officials in cities like <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/04\/30\/city-officials-reconsider-oil-and-gas-ordinances-as-anti-frack-ban-legislation-moves-forward\/\">Stillwater<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/03\/19\/local-officials-raise-new-questions-as-anti-frack-ban-legislation-makes-progress\/\">Norman<\/a> 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 \u201creasonable.\u201d<\/p><p>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.<\/p><p>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 \u2014 oil and gas shouldn\u2019t be an exception.<\/p><p>\u201cCounty 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\u2019s best for their locales,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>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\u2019s desk, where most capitol insiders expect it to be signed into law.<\/p><p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Oklahoma Legislature is sending a message to towns, cities and counties: Don\u2019t try to ban fracking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":22342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[630,238,631],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23951"}],"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=23951"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23956,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23951\/revisions\/23956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}