Not far from where Barnett Shale hydraulic fracturing first began, voters on Nov. 4 overwhelmingly approved a ban on the use of the technology within the city limits.

Voters in Denton, Texas, a traditionally conservative area, voted 59% to 41% to block fracking, making it the first city in Texas to ban the completion technique. The industry outspent its opponents by 10 to 1, possibly because out of concern that similar bans may be attempted elsewhere.

Denton should not be dismissed as one small town that crossed the industry, said James Riddlesperger, a political science professor at Texas Christian University in nearby Fort Worth.

The industry’s focus on the contest may reflect concerns that a groundswell of opposition will emerge.

“It’s not Denton itself. It’s the precedent of a city taking action of this sort,” he said.

As predicted by many observers, a lawsuit swiftly followed passage. The Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) asked a state district court on Nov. 5 for an injunction and a declaration that the ordinance is invalid and unenforceable. The ban usurps the state’s authority and criminalizes a standard industry practice, the suit claims.

The measure prohibits well stimulation using water, sand or chemical additives to improve the flow of natural gas, oil and other hydrocarbons. The city has about 270 wells.

Denton is a college town, with its largest employer the University of North Texas. Though the city leans more left than most of North Texas, politics did not appear to be a factor in voting for the ban. For instance, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Wendy Davis got a bump within the city’s precincts. She received 42% of the vote inside the city limits, compared with 32% countywide – nowhere near the fracking ban’s margin of victory.

This was not a vote based on ideology, Riddlesperger said.

He said the pattern of the election, and such elections of the past 20 years, is that people unite when they have a lot of anger.

“There is a deep embedded anger, a deep distrust of the natural gas industry,” Riddlesperger said. “People just don’t believe them when say there are no negative environment impacts.

Lawyered Up

Legal challenges were inevitable. Industry groups promised them, in fact.

“The city is no stranger to oil and gas development given its location within the Fort-Worth Basin, so last night's vote is likely to immediately spur a flurry of legal challenges,” said David Tameron, senior analyst, Wells Fargo Securities.

Thomas R. Phillips, former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court and a partner in TXOGA’s law firm, Baker Botts LLP, said he acknowledges differing opinions among local officials, residents, community groups and companies.

But Denton cannot overrule the state, he said.

“The Texas Legislature has vested extensive regulatory power over oil and natural gas development in the Railroad Commission of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ),” Phillips said.

Home-rule cities may regulate some aspects of exploration and drilling, but TXOGA does not think they can overrule state agencies or impose a complete ban on hydraulic fracturing.

Marcilynn A. Burke, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said the case will likely hinge on whether state laws and regulations leave no room for a municipality to regulate as well.

“This is by no means a slam dunk for the oil industry,” she said. “The question is about something that goes this far.”

David Porter, Texas Railroad Commissioner, also said the ban will continue to be hotly contested.

“I am confident that reason and science will triumph, and the ban will be overturned," he said.

Cathy McMullen, president of the Denton Drilling Awareness Group, which supported the ban, said on the group’s website that she knew the industry would sue.

“We lawyered this ban every which way before launching this effort,” she said. “And we consulted legal precedents for Texas home-rule cities like Denton. And we’re confident it will stand up,” she said.

She added that the oil and gas industry “is going to try to use our own state government against us by directing its paid flunkies to overturn the ban in the legislature. To them I say if you vote to overturn this ban, never again say you’re against big government.”

Riddlesperger said anti-ban advertisements he saw threatened legal action that would make passage of the ordinance time consuming and expensive.

He noted that Republicans gained strong majorities in the Legislature, which could mean changes to the law.

“Within the state, the only power that cities have is what the state gives,” he said.

Money Whispers

Both sides argued fervently about the safety of hydraulic fracturing.

Oil companies shouted the loudest by spending nearly $700,000. Campaign finance reports obtained by Hart Energy show that Devon Energy (NYSE: DVN), EnerVest and ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy each gave $120,000 to Denton Taxpayers for a Strong Economy, a specific-purpose committee.

The campaign was the most expensive in the city’s history, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported.

Porter said voters were prey to scare tactics and mischaracterizations by fracking opponents.

“Texas is a global energy leader and has the best job climate in the country because of our fair, even-handed regulatory environment,” Porter said. “Bans based on misinformation — instead of science and fact — potentially threaten this energy renaissance and as a result the well-being of all Texans.”

Sniping came from local and national levels.

The group Pass the Ban, which backed the measure, said the city would not lose any potential property taxes because “a prohibition on hydraulic fracturing is not a prohibition on natural gas drilling.”

The group added that Denton residents own only about 2% of minerals underneath the city and that royalties paid to the city of Denton account for less than 1% of the city budget.

And it said fracking is dangerous, citing a 2013 pipeline explosion in Milford, Texas, that caused the evacuation of a nearby town.

The Barnett Shale Energy Education Council dismissed the claim that drilling could continue. “Approximately 20,000 natural gas wells have been drilled in the Barnett Shale and each has been hydraulically fractured,” the group said.

As for economic ripples, the Perryman Group, an economic research and analysis firm based in Waco, said a ban would financially harm Denton to lost exploration, drilling and operations and royalties and lease payments.

A Nov. 5 report by the Energy Information Administration said that Texas added 19,000 oil and gas production jobs in 2013, six times the next highest state.

In the next decade, the city will lose $5.1 million in taxes and the school district $4.6 million if the ban stands, Perryman’s report said.

“A ban on hydraulic fracturing in the city of Denton over the next 10 years total a loss of $251.4 million in gross product (in constant 2013 dollars) and 2,077 person-years of employment in the city of Denton,” Perryman’s report said.Energy In Depth said it was disingenuous to link the Milford gas pipeline explosion to fracking operations.

“Pipelines are not hydraulically fractured,” the industry advocacy group said.