At next Tuesday’s city council meeting, the Denton City Council will consider a fracking ban brought by petitioners who submitted approximately 2,000 signatures last month to the city.

The petition was championed by the Denton Drilling Awareness Group. On their website, in the “Get Educated” section, they link to numerous anti-fracking reports and, in particular, a website with the unambiguous title “Dangers of Fracking.”

The website lists off a litany of complaints against fracking, but curiously says nothing about the economic benefits. Perhaps that’s because the economic benefits are obvious to anyone who investigates the matter beyond just looking at opponents’ rhetoric.

In September of last year, the energy consulting firm IHS came out with a stunning report that details the explosion in economic activity that has been created by new fracking technology.

Among the report’s findings:

  • Disposable income increased by $1,200 per household in 2012 alone as a result of the new American energy revolution by lowering energy bills and costs for other goods and services;
  • That increase in income for American households is expected to rise to $3,500 by the year 2025; and
  • More than 460,000 manufacturing jobs will be supported in 2020, rising to nearly 515,000 by 2025.

The question must be asked: how much economic activity are citizens willing to do away with because of the concerns of a select few?

Fracking technology has created an incredible boost in American energy that has now put the United States in position to surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s largest producer of crude oil. Fox Business reported recently that shale oil production in the U.S. could almost double by 2020.

It would be unwise for localities like Denton to erect unnecessary barriers to the job-creating, prosperity-driving American energy revolution we are now seeing.