Time reports that “a record number of proposed bans to the controversial oil and gas drilling technique known as fracking were included on local ballots countrywide Tuesday. Out of eight proposed bans, four passed, in Ohio, Texas and California.”  

“Perhaps the unlikeliest victory for anti-fracking activists was in Denton, Texas, a town north of Dallas situated in what one activist called the ‘cradle’ of the U.S. oil and gas boom. The ban, which forbids the process of setting off large explosions underground in oil and gas drilling operations, passed with nearly 59% of the vote.”  

The piece continues: “Fracking bans were also passed in Mendocino and San Benito counties in California, and in Athens, Ohio, while voters in Santa Barbara, California, and in the Ohio towns of Kent, Gates Mills and Youngstown rejected proposed fracking bans.”  

But the Denton Record-Chronicle reports: “The Texas General Land Office and the Texas Oil and Gas Association sued the city of Denton over its new ordinance banning hydraulic fracturing in the city limits.”  

“Commissioner Jerry Patterson, head of the state agency that oversees state-owned lands on behalf of Texas public schools, filed suit in Travis County Wednesday morning. The association also filed Wednesday morning in Denton district court.”