Texas bans bans- look out- we're next

The city of Denton, Texas held a plebiscite on the issue of fracking last November. The people voted overwhelmingly to ban it. But then, two weeks ago, the Texas governor Greg Abbott signed into law a bill overturning that decision, allowing fracking to go ahead. In effect the state of Texas has "banned bans" on fracking. So much for the American constitution and its much lauded Bill of Rights, which are supposed to guarantee the rights of the individual. It seems that when it's about oil and gas, the citizen's rights don't count for very much.

Yesterday in the House of Commons David Cameron stated his intention of more or less doing the exact opposite, in this case on the issue of on-shore wind farms. He said that decisions about whether to build them should rest in the hands of local people. Clearly he has thought this out and, not being a fan of the new windmills, and also knowing that around the country there is a pervasive sense of nimbyism, he could safely leave it to the local populace to vote down most of the proposals to construct wind farms.

But what, I ask myself, is going to happen when it comes to fracking? Will he allow the local people to make those decisions then? I doubt it. The idea of fracking, with its attendant risks of subsidence and the pollution of the water table, is not going down well in the shire counties, and indeed elsewhere. But we know Cameron and his number 2, George Osborne, are big fans of fracking. My guess is that when it comes to this, we might well find ourselves travelling down the same road as our Texan cousins, and ban bans. You may think you control your destiny at a local level, but believe me, you don't.