Last month, Denton, a college town not far from Dallas, voted to ban hydraulic fracturing – thanks in no small part to a dedicated band of mainly female activists. How did they manage to beat big oil? Suzanne Goldenberg reports
The fracking ban that comes into effect on Tuesday in the heart of Texas might never have happened at all, if industry had not insisted on fracking beside a local hospital, a children’s playground, and the 100-year-old farmhouse that was Cathy McMullen’s retirement dream.
That brought fracking a step too far. McMullen believes such overreach – typical under the Texas regulatory framework – helped turn a ruby-red Republican town against fracking.
Nobody took us seriously at first, because nobody has really challenged them in Texas