Fuel Fix reports that “if there were a contest for the lowest degree of finality conferred by any item on the electoral ballots last week across America, the judges would have to give serious consideration to the proposal to ban hydraulic fracturing in the North Texas city of Denton.”  

“The referendum on the technique — which flushes hydrocarbons from the earth with injections of water, sand and chemicals — produced the first localized ban anywhere in Texas, the source of roughly a third of the country’s oil and gas.”  

The piece continues: “The measure has already drawn two formidable legal challenges, one from the Texas General Land Office and the other from the Texas Oil & Gas Association. Christi Craddick, chair of the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas, has indicated plans to keep approving state permits in the city. And state lawmakers have made noises about overriding the ban with legislation. Denton officials, for their part, have pledged to defend their new ordinance in court.”