TOM MULLIKIN IS AT THE PODIUM, HIS VOICE RISING and falling with the cadence of a revival tent preacher, extolling the glories of the American energy revolution and raining fire and brimstone on the great apostates, Environment Inc. and the local anti-fracking movement. The South Carolina lawyer knows his audience; a smattering of energy industry types, but mostly small town politicians from Texas and Colorado and other energy-producing states. This is the Energy Summit, put on by the Ports-to-Plains Alliance, a pro-industry group headquartered in Lubbock, the hometown of '50s rock legend Buddy Holly, and someone in the audience remarks that the presentation feels like church. But if Mullikin is raining hellfire and brimstone down on his audience, it's with good reason. In 2014, the City of Denton passed a bylaw banning hydraulic fracturing within city limits, and kicked off a jurisdictional debate over who really has the power to oversee the development of oil and gas.
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