14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that this really is the season to be jolly, at least as far as environmentalists in Dallas, Texas are concerned. News from this part of the United States says that, this past Wednesday, the Dallas City Council issued a new set of rules and regulations that ban hydraulic fracturing within this urban area's limits.
Truth be told, the new legislation does not say that fracking is absolutely and irrevocably illegal in the city.
On the contrary, it just stipulates that such activities are to no longer be carried out within 1,500 feet (457.2 meters) of a home, a school, a church or some other area that is considered protected.
Still, judging by how many homes, schools, churches and protected areas there are in Texas, this basically means that said practice has been effectively kicked out of the city.
“We might as well save a lot of paper and write a one-line ordinance that says there will be no gas drilling in the city of Dallas. That would be a much easier ordinance to have,” council member Lee Kleinman reportedly said in a statement.
“You just can’t drill under these conditions. It’d require more than 250-acres of property and in an urban area it’s just not possible,” added Dallas Cothrum, a spokesperson for gas company Trinity East, as cited by RT.
Dallas sits on the edge of the Barnett Shale area, which is why Trinity East and other gas companies are not exactly thrilled about the City Council's decision to roll out such strict anti-fracking measures.
Grist explains that, by passing this piece of legislation, the city of Dallas in Texas became the fifth urban area in the state to institute local restrictions on hydraulic fracturing.
For those unaware, fracking boils down to injecting water, sand and several chemicals in the underground in an attempt to free the gas and the oil trapped in these deep rock layers.
According to several studies, the practice can seriously harm the environment and, under certain conditions, might even cause earthquakes to occur.