Legislators eye cities’ rights to limit drilling
Legislators want restoration of cities’ rights to limit drilling
Two South Texas lawmakers are pushing to restore communities’ rights to limit where oil and gas companies drill.
Two South Texas lawmakers, backed by an environmental group and residents in smalltown Texas, are pushing to restore communities’ rights to limit where oil and gas companies drill, particularly around schools and day care facilities.
If successful, a pair of bills from the House and the Senate would chip away at House Bill 40, a 2015 law that stripped municipalities of the right to restrict drilling in city limits. That law superseded more than 300 local ordinances that limited or prohibited local oil and gas development, and declared that any regulations that aren’t “commercially reasonable” — such as a setback that prevents drilling — cannot be enforced.
The House and Senate bills, proposed by two border town Democrats, Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg and Sen. Judith Zaffirini of Laredo, are the first legislative attack on HB40.
The House bill would require a 1,500-foot drilling setback from schools and day care centers; the Senate bill would require a local public meeting anytime a permit is submitted to drill within 1,500 feet of a school or day care center.
The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates oil and gas, does not enforce setbacks from residential properties, nor does it require public notice when drilling permits are submitted or approved. But it does require that a county clerk, city
authority and property owner be notified when a company wants to drill an injection well, which can be used for wastewater from drilling operations deep underground.
“HB40 took away our ability to protect ourselves,” said Sharon Wilson, the Gulf region organizer for Earthworks, a national environmental advocacy group that supports the bills. “It left us at the mercy of the Railroad Commission, and at the very least we need to protect schools, where a lot of children gather.”
But the oil and gas industry says the bills’ premise — that drilling is harmful to health and should be kept away from city populations — has no basis in science, said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, an industry advocacy group.
“The Senate bill simply adds bureaucracy without benefits or basis,” Staples said. “The House bill is a departure from the regulatory approach in Texas that is working to promote consistency in oil and gas regulation.”
Canales and Zaffirini filed the bills in early March. The bills have not yet been assigned to a committee, and passage by the Republican-controlled Legislature appears slim.
Zaffirini said she recognizes her bill faces obstacles but believes it addresses a bipartisan issue of oil and gas safety that could attract support from Republicans.
Two Republicans, Sen. Jane Nelson and Rep. Tan Parker, both of Flower Mound, voted against HB40 two years ago.
Flower Mound passed its first ordinance imposing setbacks on drilling in 2003, and updated the ordinance in 2011 to impose a 1,500-foot drilling setback from schools, churches and hospitals.
In 2015, Flower Mound residents appealed to Parker and Nelson to stop HB40 from superseding their ordinance, but the two Republicans and Democrats were outnumbered in the final vote.
Neither Nelson nor Parker responded to requests for comment.