This coming Tuesday the citizens of Denton, Texas, will have a chance to decide whether or not to ban fracking within their city's limits.
But with big money to be made there are big money interests trying to fight the ban:
As election day approaches, it appears outside entities are funneling more and more money into the race.
Close to $80,000 has gone to the "Pass the Ban" committee, with more than half of that coming from the Washington D.C.-based environmental group Earthworks.
The figure pales in comparison to what oil and gas companies have donated for efforts opposing the ban.
According to the latest campaign finance reports, XTO Energy, Devon and EnerVest have each donated more than $150,000 to the "Denton Taxpayers for a Strong Economy" specific-purpose committee. That committee has raised nearly $700,000 overall.
Obviously, this in and of itself is not news. Big money gets thrown around all of the time when big business feels threatened. What's interesting to break down here is that where in many cases there are real job opportunities being held out to communities affected by fracking, real money for the town or city, the fact of the matter is that Dentonites DON'T NEED fracking. At all.
As Kevin Roden's Denton blog points out:
The money to be made from fracking in Denton has largely already been made, as evidence by the hundreds of existing wells, many of which were drilled nearly a decade ago, throughout the city. We are home to no major oil and gas operators. Our local government and schools are not depending on revenues from gas to fund our services. And according to recent economic demographic data for the city, jobs relating to the oil and gas industry make up just 0.27 percent of our local workforce and has even seen a 2.02 percent decrease between 2012 and 2013.
It would seem a rather easy choice for those in Denton. Why risk the health of your community when there is very little to gain? Follow me below the fold.
The right-swaying oil and gas industry says an all-out ban is illegal; and they are going to use their money to sue.
Tom Giovanetti, who lives in Denton County but outside of the city limits, says voters need to consider the legal ramifications that could come along with an outright ban.
"There could be years of litigation, and hundreds of thousand in legal costs," he said. "Literally, millions of dollars in settlements."
Giovanetti, who runs the right-leaning Institute for Policy Innovation, said there also could be a potential economy loss of up to $250 million over the coming decade.
It's nice that the right-leaning Tom Giovanetti wants to give us some unbiased advice.
Maybe regulations would be a better way to work this out?
But, according to the group, an all-out ban was a last solution in a long, unsuccessful effort to restrict hydraulic fracking through less extreme means. There are over a dozen wells within city limits, and a previous ordinance failed to prevent drilling activity near neighborhoods and residential areas.
“We saw, once the [original] ordinance was passed, the sort of futility of this compatibility strategy,” Adam Briggle, the vice president of DAG said. “The realization was that you can either have fracking or you can have a healthy city, but you can’t have both.”
And this is the crux of the matter. The citizens have spoken but big business does not want their answer. Big business never cared to compromise at all. Big business, already allowed to spend way more money than its detractors to sway public opinion, adds the further technique of extortion. We can't offer you money in job creation or in tourism or cheaper energy. We don't have anything you want in the hopes you will give up your very rational fears of pollution, so we will now threaten to take money away from you in expensive litigation.
What is lost in all of this, besides the basic civil and democratic rights of the citizens of Denton, is that there are other ways to grow your city. There are other ways to improve your economic future. New ways. Times are changing, Kevin Roden points out, and what's changing most are attitudes of the younger, more populated generation of millennials:
Like it or not, the economically powerful cities of the 21st century will be those that figure out how to be attractive to this generation.
While the oil and gas industry makes up a mere 0.27 percent of our local jobs, we have the potential to leverage a boom of another sort – Denton is the 6th best high-tech hot-spot in the nation. Smart cities are paying attention to the studies and are realizing that investing in sustainability, walkable/bikable development and infrastructure, cultural amenities, and vibrant urban cores is the way to retain and attract a talented workforce and the companies who need them. As an example, cities like Chicago are racing to be the most bikable cities in the nation – all with the goal to attract high tech industry.
Whatever happens on Tuesday, this will be an important moment. The people don't always win against corporations and easily bought officials but resistance is never futile and resistance is the only way toward meaningful change.