[Local/State] It's official. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 40 into law earlier this week, effectively overturning Denton's fracking ban and stripping cities across Texas of their ability to regulate oil and gas operations on the local level. Municipalities that try to enact certain types of restrictions or rules for oil and gas activities within their borders will now be preempted by the state Railroad Commission. 

In response to Governor Abbott signing HB 40 into law, the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter's Conservation Director, Cyrus Reed, issued this statement: 

“If the Railroad Commission does their job and regulates oil and gas effectively, as the bill’s sponsors claimed it does, Texans wouldn’t have had to take matters into their own hands in the first place. The agency’s inattentiveness to addressing the dangers associated with urban oil and gas operations is what led citizens to seek protection locally…"