Texas Governor Signs Bill to Prevent Cities From Passing Fracking Bans

Texas flexed its industrial muscles on Monday, after state governor Greg Abbott signed a piece of legislature outlawing any bans on hydraulic fracturing within the states limits.

The law is of top priority to Texas council members and is scheduled to be enacted immediately due to its ‘auspicious’ effect on the evolving energy market. After signing the bill, Governor Abbott declared that the newly found law,

“Does a profound job of helping to protect private property rights here in the state of Texas, ensuring those who own their property will not have the heavy hand of local regulation deprive them of their rights.”

Of course, not all were as so enthusiastic as the Governor on the matter, like Luke Metzger, founder and director of Environmental Texas, who revealed to ThinkProgress in April,

“Many of these legislators are speaking out of both sides of their mouths. These bills absolutely conflict with long-standing conservative principles.”

The process of fracking is one which involves a combination of highly pressurized water, sand, and a mixture of chemicals to free up oil and natural gas reserves beneath the bedrock of dry land, and sometimes rivers and naturals aquifers.

There is research that suggests a correlation between increased fracking and an abnormally high amount of severe earthquakes within the Texas and Oklahoma region. Depletion of water in areas that cannot afford the intensive use of water, as well as increased air and water pollution, can also be directly attributed to fracking.

That’s why city councilman, Kevin Roden, representing local Texas city Denton, who prohibited fracking in 2014 and then was sued by the Texas General Land Office along with Texas Oil, said,

“There seems to be an attitude that big state government knows better than the citizens of a city. I just think -conservative or liberal- that is something you don’t do in Texas.”

Overall, the Texas legislature had the law pass both chambers by more than a two-thirds margin, and it should serve as no surprise. Texas is the United States biggest oil and gas producer, resting on two massive shale gas deposits – The Burnett shale in the north, and the Eagle Ford shale in the south.

It’s no wonder Abbott commented on local regulations, saying they were leading to Texas to be “California-ized”.