{"id":24048,"date":"2015-06-01T10:18:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T15:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=24048"},"modified":"2015-06-01T10:18:17","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T15:18:17","slug":"gov-fallin-signs-bill-to-prevent-towns-cities-and-counties-from-banning-fracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2015\/06\/01\/gov-fallin-signs-bill-to-prevent-towns-cities-and-counties-from-banning-fracking\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Fallin Signs Bill to Prevent Towns, Cities and Counties from Banning Fracking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gov.<\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Gov. Mary Fallin at a state capitol press conference in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Gov. Mary Fallin on May 29 signed into law a bill preventing towns, cities and counties from banning hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas activities.<\/p>

<\/p>

Senate Bill 809<\/a> was one of several similarly worded bills filed during the 2015 legislative session. Many of the measures were fueled by a voter-approved fracking ban in Denton, Texas, just south of the state line, as well as municipal actions here in Oklahoma, where cities such as Norman<\/a> and Stillwater<\/a> were revising and rewriting local oil and gas ordinances.<\/p>

Under the language of SB 809, authored by Senate President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, municipalities have the authority to enact local rules regulating oil and gas-related nuisances, such as noise, traffic and odors, provided such rules are \u201creasonable.\u201d<\/p>

Throughout the legislative session and discussion on the anti-frack ban legislation, state lawmakers noted the definition of \u201creasonable<\/a>\u201d is open to interpretation, and city officials warned of the potential for lengthy court challenges to any new oil and gas rules they enact.<\/p>

The Oklahoma Municipal League opposed the bill. The organization\u2019s executive director, Carolyn Stager, said local governments are most responsive to citizens\u2019 concerns about localized oil and gas issues.<\/p>

Capitol leadership, the energy industry and mineral owners, and the State Chamber supported the measure, which reaffirms the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as the state\u2019s dominant oil and gas regulator. In a statement, Gov. Mary Fallin echoed a similar sentiment, writing that her signing of SB 809 preserves \u201ca unified regulatory framework for the industry\u201d and prevents \u201ca confusing patchwork of inconsistent municipal regulations across the state.\u201d<\/p>

From Fallin\u2019s statement<\/a>:<\/p>

\u201cCorporation Commissioners are elected by the people of Oklahoma to regulate the oil and gas industry. They are best equipped to make decisions about drilling and its [effect] on seismic activity, the environment and other sensitive issues. We need to let these experts do their jobs. The alternative is to pursue a patchwork of regulations that, in some cases, could arbitrarily ban energy exploration and damage the state\u2019s largest industry, largest employers and largest taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>

 <\/p>

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Mary Fallin on May 29 signed into law a bill preventing towns, cities and counties from banning hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":16597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[630,238,631,53],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24048"}],"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=24048"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24051,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24048\/revisions\/24051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}