March 23, 2015      12:48 PM
Cities and the oil and gas industry gear up ahead of showdown over drilling bills today
TML and TXOGA jockey for position ahead of House hearing on urban drilling bills. Complete coverage this afternoon via Texas Energy Report
Cities
around the state and the oil and gas industry are working to get the word out this
Monday afternoon about their respective positions in one of the centerpiece
fights of this legislative session.
The
bills that spell out what authority cities will or won’t have when it comes to
urban drilling – HB 40 and HB 593 – are being heard back-to-back in
the House
Energy Resources Committee just after 2pm.
For
its part, the Texas Oil & Gas Association released a new video showing
aerial images of a neighborhood in Denton – ground zero for the debate after
voters decided to ban fracking there – where the city permitted residential
construction very close to existing wells. The group said those permits stand “in
stark contrast to the city’s own requirement for unreasonably large distances
between wells and homes.”
By Scott Braddock
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