AUSTIN—Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law restrictions to how municipalities can regulate oil and gas drilling operations within their city limits.
The law comes as a response to a hydraulic fracturing ban passed by Denton voters last November. But the law would go farther than barring fracking bans and preempt cities from enacting a variety of other ordinances, including regulations on wastewater disposal wells, which numerous studies have tied to earthquakes.
In a brief news conference Monday, Abbott heralded the law as a step to protect mineral rights holders and prevent a patchwork of regulations across the state.
“Oil and gas is already regulated at the state level by multiple agencies, at the federal level by multiple agencies, the last thing we need is an encroachment on private property rights at the local level,” Abbott said.
Critics say the law is an affront to local control and prevents cities from picking up the slack where locals view state regulation has failed them.
Abbott compared the new law to suits he filed as attorney general against the federal government for alleged overreach.
“It’s exactly the same…We’re ensuring that people and officials at the local level are not going to be encroaching upon individual liberty or individual rights,” Abbott said.