SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
In Step with Texas, Oklahoma Poised to Outlaw Local Drilling Bans
In the face of public outcry and mounting evidence linking fracking to earthquake activity, state lawmakers advance bill
May 20, 2015
Despite mounting scientific evidence that fracking is increasing seismic activity in the state, Oklahoma legislators are poised to pass legislation preventing municipalities from passing local bans on drilling operations.
Senate Bill 468 would overturn an 80-year-old statute and explicitly prohibits local regulation of certain oil and gas activities--even if such regulation is approved by Oklahoma voters.
Following the lead of Texas lawmakers, who on Monday passed a law forbidding towns or cities from enacting local restrictions on any gas or oil drilling operations, both the Oklahoma House and Senate passed SB 468 with strong majority support. The bill now awaits changes in the Senate before advancing.
Outside of a few specific areas including noise and traffic regulation, SB 468 says that municipalities "may not otherwise regulate, prohibit, or ban any oil and gas operations, including oil and gas exploration, drilling, fracture stimulation, completion, production, maintenance, plugging and abandonment, produced water disposal, or secondary recovery operations. Such operations are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction and regulation of the Corporation Commission."
"The legislature has basically sent a message which is: we're going to continue enabling the industry," Ed Shadid, a city councilman in Oklahoma City, told Reuters.
At the same time, a growing body of evidence linking an increase in earthquakes in the state to fracking operations is driving public outcry in Oklahoma.
A coalition of local environmental and public health groups on Monday delivered 1,500 signatures to Republican Gov. Mary Fallin calling for a "moratorium on the use of high-volume, high pressure disposals wells in 16 counties that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, has identified as 'areas of interest' because of earthquake activity," AP reports.
"Oklahoma is now the earthquake capital of America. How did this happen?" said Barbara Van Hanken, co-founder of Clean Energy Future Oklahoma and chair of the Oklahoma Sierra Club.
Last month, scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey issued a statement (pdf) saying it is "very likely that the majority of recent earthquakes, particularly those in central and north-central Oklahoma are triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells."
Scientists with the OGS estimate that the state had 585 earthquakes of magnitude-3 or greater in 2014 alone, and is on track to have more than 800 this year, compared with an annual average of one to three quakes prior to 2009.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Lauren McCauley
Lauren McCauley is a former senior editor for Common Dreams covering national and international politics and progressive news. She is now the Editor of Maine Morning Star. Lauren also helped produce a number of documentary films, including the award-winning Soundtrack for a Revolution and The Hollywood Complex, as well as one currently in production about civil rights icon James Meredith. Her writing has been featured on Newsweek, BillMoyers.com, TruthDig, Truthout, In These Times, and Extra! the newsletter of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She currently lives in Kennebunk, Maine with her husband, two children, a dog, and several chickens.
Despite mounting scientific evidence that fracking is increasing seismic activity in the state, Oklahoma legislators are poised to pass legislation preventing municipalities from passing local bans on drilling operations.
Senate Bill 468 would overturn an 80-year-old statute and explicitly prohibits local regulation of certain oil and gas activities--even if such regulation is approved by Oklahoma voters.
Following the lead of Texas lawmakers, who on Monday passed a law forbidding towns or cities from enacting local restrictions on any gas or oil drilling operations, both the Oklahoma House and Senate passed SB 468 with strong majority support. The bill now awaits changes in the Senate before advancing.
Outside of a few specific areas including noise and traffic regulation, SB 468 says that municipalities "may not otherwise regulate, prohibit, or ban any oil and gas operations, including oil and gas exploration, drilling, fracture stimulation, completion, production, maintenance, plugging and abandonment, produced water disposal, or secondary recovery operations. Such operations are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction and regulation of the Corporation Commission."
"The legislature has basically sent a message which is: we're going to continue enabling the industry," Ed Shadid, a city councilman in Oklahoma City, told Reuters.
At the same time, a growing body of evidence linking an increase in earthquakes in the state to fracking operations is driving public outcry in Oklahoma.
A coalition of local environmental and public health groups on Monday delivered 1,500 signatures to Republican Gov. Mary Fallin calling for a "moratorium on the use of high-volume, high pressure disposals wells in 16 counties that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, has identified as 'areas of interest' because of earthquake activity," AP reports.
"Oklahoma is now the earthquake capital of America. How did this happen?" said Barbara Van Hanken, co-founder of Clean Energy Future Oklahoma and chair of the Oklahoma Sierra Club.
Last month, scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey issued a statement (pdf) saying it is "very likely that the majority of recent earthquakes, particularly those in central and north-central Oklahoma are triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells."
Scientists with the OGS estimate that the state had 585 earthquakes of magnitude-3 or greater in 2014 alone, and is on track to have more than 800 this year, compared with an annual average of one to three quakes prior to 2009.
Lauren McCauley
Lauren McCauley is a former senior editor for Common Dreams covering national and international politics and progressive news. She is now the Editor of Maine Morning Star. Lauren also helped produce a number of documentary films, including the award-winning Soundtrack for a Revolution and The Hollywood Complex, as well as one currently in production about civil rights icon James Meredith. Her writing has been featured on Newsweek, BillMoyers.com, TruthDig, Truthout, In These Times, and Extra! the newsletter of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She currently lives in Kennebunk, Maine with her husband, two children, a dog, and several chickens.
Despite mounting scientific evidence that fracking is increasing seismic activity in the state, Oklahoma legislators are poised to pass legislation preventing municipalities from passing local bans on drilling operations.
Senate Bill 468 would overturn an 80-year-old statute and explicitly prohibits local regulation of certain oil and gas activities--even if such regulation is approved by Oklahoma voters.
Following the lead of Texas lawmakers, who on Monday passed a law forbidding towns or cities from enacting local restrictions on any gas or oil drilling operations, both the Oklahoma House and Senate passed SB 468 with strong majority support. The bill now awaits changes in the Senate before advancing.
Outside of a few specific areas including noise and traffic regulation, SB 468 says that municipalities "may not otherwise regulate, prohibit, or ban any oil and gas operations, including oil and gas exploration, drilling, fracture stimulation, completion, production, maintenance, plugging and abandonment, produced water disposal, or secondary recovery operations. Such operations are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction and regulation of the Corporation Commission."
"The legislature has basically sent a message which is: we're going to continue enabling the industry," Ed Shadid, a city councilman in Oklahoma City, told Reuters.
At the same time, a growing body of evidence linking an increase in earthquakes in the state to fracking operations is driving public outcry in Oklahoma.
A coalition of local environmental and public health groups on Monday delivered 1,500 signatures to Republican Gov. Mary Fallin calling for a "moratorium on the use of high-volume, high pressure disposals wells in 16 counties that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, has identified as 'areas of interest' because of earthquake activity," AP reports.
"Oklahoma is now the earthquake capital of America. How did this happen?" said Barbara Van Hanken, co-founder of Clean Energy Future Oklahoma and chair of the Oklahoma Sierra Club.
Last month, scientists at the Oklahoma Geological Survey issued a statement (pdf) saying it is "very likely that the majority of recent earthquakes, particularly those in central and north-central Oklahoma are triggered by the injection of produced water in disposal wells."
Scientists with the OGS estimate that the state had 585 earthquakes of magnitude-3 or greater in 2014 alone, and is on track to have more than 800 this year, compared with an annual average of one to three quakes prior to 2009.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.