{"id":25010,"date":"2013-03-08T12:12:50","date_gmt":"2013-03-08T18:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=25010"},"modified":"2013-03-20T11:16:25","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T16:16:25","slug":"bill-would-change-how-local-governments-regulate-drilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/03\/08\/bill-would-change-how-local-governments-regulate-drilling\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Would Change How Local Governments Regulate Drilling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/videoseries?index=21&#038;list=UUcwAqGwKnkBOjwozBc_opsg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Update, March 20, 2013:<\/strong> <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.legis.state.tx.us\/tlodocs\/83R\/billtext\/pdf\/HB01496I.pdf#navpanes=0\">HB 1496<\/a>, which would limit how cities could restrict or ban drilling and fracking, is scheduled for a hearing in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legis.state.tx.us\/Committees\/MeetingsByCmte.aspx?Leg=83&amp;Chamber=H&amp;CmteCode=C360\">Land and Resource Management Committee<\/a> Monday, March 25 at the Capitol. You can<a href=\"http:\/\/www.legis.state.tx.us\/tlodocs\/83R\/schedules\/html\/C3602013032514001.HTM\"> find the agenda here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Original Story, March 8, 2013:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0&#8220;Local control&#8221; is a term you hear a lot of from Texas elected officials. That&#8217;s no surprise in a state where lawmakers extoll the benefits of limited central government and bottom-up policy making. But, according to some, there are also times when local regulations can become confusing and cumbersome. Specifically, when they pertain to regulating oil and gas drilling.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tarrant county is a great example,&#8221; State Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) said at a recent panel discussion on the oil and gas boom hosted by StateImpact Texas. &#8220;[It has] 34 municipalities within the county each one has different laws regarding drilling. In fact, there&#8217;s one community that&#8217;s completely outlawed any drilling.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A bill filed this legislative session by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/van-taylor\/\">State Rep. Van Taylor<\/a>, R-Plano, would not take away the right of local jurisdictions to pass those restrictions, but it may make them much more difficult to accomplish.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The bill, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.legis.state.tx.us\/BillLookup\/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&amp;Bill=HB1496\">HB 1496<\/a>, would change Texas eminent domain laws, to consider any regulation that restricts drilling for oil and gas as a &#8220;taking&#8221; under the law. It would mandate that local governments that pass those laws compensate property owners who are prohibited from drilling. In essence, if a city says a company can&#8217;t drill on your land, they may have to pay you what the drillers would have in royalties.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What this bill would do was make cities have to condemn a mineral interest if they decide no drilling inside the city limits,&#8221; said Rep. Taylor.<\/p>\n<p>That might raise red flags in communities that want to be able to limit drilling in as inexpensive a way possible, putting cities on the hook for vast sums of money if they wish to ban drilling or keep rigs away from places like schools and parks.<\/p>\n<p>When asked, Rep. Taylor agreed that the bill would make the prospect of limiting drilling more expensive, but argued the the current system amounted to &#8220;confiscation without compensation.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update, March 20, 2013: HB 1496, which would limit how cities could restrict or ban drilling and fracking, is scheduled for a hearing in the Land and Resource Management Committee Monday, March 25 at the Capitol. You can find the agenda here. Original Story, March 8, 2013:\u00a0&#8220;Local control&#8221; is a term you hear a lot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25589,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25010\/revisions\/25589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}