The Fracking Controversy in Denton and Beyond

Adam Briggle, Associate Professor,

Philosophy and Religion, University of North Texas

• Fracking 101History of energy useTechnology and terminology Controversies

• The Story of DentonMuddling through and the compatibility strategy The debate about the ban Beyond the ban

Extreme Energy

Extreme Energy

Murphy and Hall. 2010. “Year in Review – EROI”

Extreme energy

Data source is Energy Information Administration here: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPUS1&f=M

The U.S. is “simply running out” of oil and natural gas. President Jimmy Carter – April 1977.

Fracking

We didn’t use to need fossil fuels.

Fracking

• Fracking writ large • Hydraulic fracturing

• Fracking in 1870 • Fracking in 1950

– 750 gallons of fluid. 450 pounds of sand. • Fracking in 2000

– 6 million gallons of fluid. 4 million pounds of sand. – 10,000 fold increase

• See Carl T. Montgomery and Michael B. Smith, “Hydraulic Fracturing: History of an Enduring Technology,” Journal of Petroleum Technology 62, no. 12 (2010): 26–32.

Barnett Shale

The data source is the Texas Railroad Commission here: http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/media/25828/barnettshale_totalnaturalgas_2000_102014.pdf

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Number of Gas Wells in Denton

201320102001 2005

DENTON

The Father of Fracking

Robson RanchS.H. Griffin

Controversy

• Fracking is bad • Fracking is good

• Water • Air • Health and safety • Climate • Economics • Earthquakes • Energy independence • Jurisdiction

Green dots = frack sites in Denton

Southwest corner of Denton

DENTON: ~ 280 gas wells in city limits;

110,000 people; Population to nearly double by 2030

Most growth projected in gas patch

Denton Stakeholder Drilling Advisory Group (DAG)

The Clash• Shale

• City

How does Denton handle the clash?

• The compatibility strategy (as regulatory system)

• Drilling and production are industrial uses that can be permitted in any zoning district with a specific use permit (SUP) that establishes certain standards.

• http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientId=14239&stateId=43&stateName=Texas

• DDC sub-chapter 6. Then see 35.5.2.2. Then see sub-chapter 22, 35.22.1.A.

The Rationale for Compatibility

• Mineral estate predominance and takings – Only one use for mineral estate, must occur

anywhere

• Faith in best practices – that safe fracking is not an oxymoron.

The Technological Wager

• a gamble or even a faith that we can transform the world in the pursuit of narrowly-defined goals and successfully manage the broader unintended consequences that result.

– Shale: Extract oil and gas at a profit.– City: Air, water, climate, and community impacts.

Compatibility Strategy

• In general terms: Making the narrow intentions of the technology compatible with a wider set of values.

• Denton’s ordinance: Making the production of minerals (and subsequent revenue generation) compatible with health, safety, welfare, community integrity, and property values.

• Policymaking, then, becomes an extension of engineering – building a wider set of values into the system.

• Whose values?– There is no such thing as the one best solution.

• January 2013 – Revised ordinance

• September 2013– Drilling at the Meadows at Hickory Creek

• February 2014– Frack Free Denton begins petition drive

Vintage Wells

• Rrc wider out

2011

• Grab screen shots from here for next few slides

• http://www.cityofdenton.com/home/showdocument?id=17607

Fall 2013, Vintage and S. Bonnie Brae

Northern Pad Site

Southern Pad Site

Northern Pad Site

Southern Pad Site

Two existing (old) wells turned from vertical to horizontal

Northern Pad Site

Southern Pad Site

Two new wells on the northern pad site

*Note: This excludes the roughly 75% of wealth held by the operators.

13 families/individuals hold 50% of all wealth owned by Denton residents.

More homes planned near the southern Vintage pad site. When they frack there in the future, will it be a ‘new’ project? If so, the homes would make it illegal.

A Railroad Commission plat for 211 acres in Denton

281 gas wells and 10,000 acres vested by old laws that allow fracking 200 feet from homes.G

reen

dot

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ack

site

s.

Red

cir

cles

= a

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acki

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• Argument for the ban– Last option to achieve commonsense land use

regulations…frack sites but not bakeries?

• Argument against the ban– Costly and illegal

After the Ban

• Lawsuits

• Legislation

• Local control and liberty