American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015 - 33

purchasing and installing both permanent and portable monitoring hardware.
"It will almost double the state's permanent capacity for monitoring earthquakes," he relates. "Additionally, TexNet
will provide an advisory council of technical experts. Two of those will be technical advisers from the industry, two of
them will be from academia, one will be
an RRC seismologist, and the governor
will appoint the other four."

Oil And Gas Exports
The Alliance and TIPRO also support a
pair of the legislature's symbolic gestures.
HJR 63 urges the federal government to expedite natural gas exports. SCR 13 urges
Congress to end the ban on crude oil exports.
"We applaud the initiative of the Texas
Legislature to prompt Congress to repeal
the nation's crude export ban," Longanecker relates. "Allowing American oil and gas
free access to the global marketplace final-

ly will acknowledge the new reality of the
American energy renaissance. These policy changes will benefit American workers and consumers while providing a
huge boost to our economy. This is accomplished by putting American producers on
a level playing field with their international competitors."
As the session wound down in late
May, Stevens acknowledged that the large
number of freshmen in both legislative
chambers had made the session particularly challenging. "It can be disconcerting and
make things a bit disjointed when legislators are less than familiar with all the procedures, but it has come back together,"
he reflected. "The budget compromise offers a great example. The House and the
Senate each had different ideas and, for a
time, could not come together. For the
longest time it seemed as if they were talking past each other, but they finally
reached a compromise."
❒

Oklahoma Legislators Restrict
Municipal Oversight Of Drilling
OKLAHOMA CITY-Oklahoma legislators have approved a bill that prohibits
towns and municipalities from imposing
nonsurface regulations on oil and gas activities. Under the law, local governments could not prohibit hydraulic fracturing or wastewater disposal.
SB 809, sponsored by Senator Brian
Crain, R-Tulsa, sets limits on what municipalities, counties, and other political subdivisions can regulate, the state legislative
website says. It repeals a 1935 statute that
gave municipalities authority to impose local regulations on oil and gas operations
within their borders, and makes most
drilling activities subject to the Oklahoma
Corporation Commission.
Under the bill, local governments retain
authority to adopt local regulations governing road use, traffic, noise, odors and
fencing requirements for well sites within their boundaries, provided they are consistent with Oklahoma law or OCC regulations.
James Roller, vice president of legislative affairs for the Oklahoma Independent
Petroleum Association, says SB 809 is similar to legislation signed into law in Texas
in late May (see story page 31). He points
out OIPA supported SB 809, adding
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin is expected to sign the legislation.
"Effectively, it gives greater clarification to cities and municipalities on what
they can regulate, in terms of oil and gas
development," Roller says. "The idea is to

protect the general health and safety of residents. The bill talks about a city's ability to set reasonable ordinances, which in
most cases pertain to setbacks, fencing requirements, lighting, and those types of issues."
According to the bill's text, municipalities, counties and other political subdivisions are authorized to establish reasonable
setbacks and fencing requirements for oil
and gas well sites "as are reasonably
necessary to protect the health, safety and
welfare of its citizens, but may not effectively 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, secondary recovery operations, flow and
gathering lines, or pipeline infrastructure."

Working With Legislators
Oklahoma's legislators remain very receptive to the oil and gas industry's concerns, including keeping most regulatory
authority with OCC, Roller assesses.
"Most of the state's elected officials did
not have a problem with keeping the regulatory body that effectively always has
regulated oil and gas development," he
says. "Most municipalities lack that experience. The state has what I would consider not just a pro-industry legislature, but
a very knowledgeable legislature in terms
of oil and gas development. Lawmakers
JUNE 2015 33

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2015

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