Fracking Banned in Athens, OH, in Denton, TX, and Two California Counties

Fracking Bans Pass in Denton (Texas), Two California Counties and One Ohio City

From an Article by Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch.com, November 5, 2014

With a record number of fracking issues on local ballots in California, Texas and Ohio, the outcome was decidedly mixed. Of the eight measures—three in California, four in Ohio and one in Texas—four passed and four failed.

Denton became the first city in Texas—a state where fracking has become big business—to pass such a ban, despite threats from the oil and gas industry to sue to overturn it. And it passed overwhelmingly, 59-41 percent, despite heavy spending by the industry.

The biggest victory came in Denton in north Texas, located atop the lucrative Barnett shale play. After citizens demanded action from city council on a fracking ban and council punted last July, the issue went to the ballot where it passed last night.

“As I have stated numerous times, the democratic process is alive and well in Denton,” said Denton mayor Chris Watts. “Hydraulic fracturing, as determined by our citizens, will be prohibited in the Denton city limits. The city council is committed to defending the ordinance and will exercise the legal remedies that are available to us should the ordinance be challenged.”

“Denton, Texas, is where hydraulic fracturing was invented,” said Earthworks energy program director Bruce Baizel. “It’s home to more than 275 fracked wells. It’s a place that knows fracking perhaps better than any other. If this place in the heart of the oil and gas industry can’t live with fracking, then who can? The answer, at present, is ‘no one.’

“Mendocino County in California joins more than 150 communities across the U.S. that have adopted the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)-drafted Community Bills of Rights to secure their unalienable rights to clean air and water, the rights of nature to exist and thrive and the rights of communities to local self-governance,” CELDF said in a statement.

The oil and gas industry spent nearly $2 million in sparsely populated San Benito County, outspending ban supporters 15-1. Although there is currently no fracking in the county, fossil fuel interests were clearly concerned about the precedent it would set. In total the industry spent about $7.7 million, most of that in Santa Barbara, which is a major oil producer.

“Fracking is a dirty and dangerous way to drill for oil and natural gas,” said Dan Jacobson of Environment California. “What’s worse is fracking keeps us addicted to fossil fuels at the exact time we need to move to clean renewable energy. As world leaders travel to Lima Peru in December of 2014 and as more and more local cities and counties ban fracking, we need Governor Brown to reconsider his position on fracking and stop fracking in California.”

“Ohio communities are challenging the corporate claimed ‘right’ to frack, as well as the claims of our state government that communities have no right to protect their own health, safety and welfare,” said Tish O’Dell, Ohio community rights organizer at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which worked with Athens in drafting its ballot measure. “They are joining dozens of other communities across the country who are securing their inalienable right to local self-governance and to a sustainable future.”

See also: Ohio Singled Out for Worst Fracking Waste Disposal Practices

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

New song by The Frackettes of Denton

FrackFreedom, The Frackettes, Denton, Texas, September 27th, 2014

We hope you enjoy this new song, “Fracking Is A Town’s Best Friend” by Denton’s own group, The Frackettes.

Denton residents believe in the ban! In addition to preforming songs and puppet shows, Dentonites are making their own Frack Free Denton signs. We love seeing homemade signs like this.

>>>>>>>>>>>>

Athens (Ohio) Passes Fracking Ban, Three Other Ohio Cities Don’t

From an Article of Inside Climate News, November 5, 2014

Down but not out: After frack ban fails in Youngstown, Ohio, for the fourth time, activist Susie Beiersdorfer refuses to accept defeat. “We don’t lose until we quit…We can’t quit,” she says.

The college town of Athens, Ohio voted by 78 percent to outlaw fracking and related activities, standing in stark contrast to three other towns in the state that failed to pass similar measures. Athens joined the north Texas town of Denton and two southern California counties, San Benito and Mendocino, in pushing back against the fracking boom on election day.

This summer, two drilling companies sued the Ohio town of Broadview Heights over its ban, which passed in November 2012.

The threat of litigation isn’t unique to Ohio. Denton is already gearing up for a legal fight. And in Colorado, fracking bans that passed in two towns in 2012 were overturned in court. Now the communities are appealing the decision. This summer, after years of litigation, New York’s high court ruled to allow two towns to keep their anti-drilling bans.

Most of Ohio sits atop the Utica Shale formation. Although the town of Athens, which has a population of roughly 23,000, is within this region, drilling isn’t currently taking place there.

Athens is the fifth community in Ohio, along with Broadview Heights, Mansfield, Oberlin and Yellow Springs, to pass a measure prohibiting oil and gas activity in the last three years, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. In contrast to Athens, the towns of Gates Mills, Kent and Youngstown did not have enough support to pass their own measures this year.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net