DALLAS, Texas — Nowhere is a debate on fracking more fractious than in Texas, where the oil and gas industry is king and has done a lot to fund the state’s healthy emergency reserves (“Rainy Day Fund”) and public education. Right now, North Texas residents in the City of Denton are heading to the polls to determine whether or not to impose a California-style fracking ban.

FrackNation filmmaker Phelim McAleer and Texas anti-fracking activist Calvin Tillman will duke it out on both sides of the timely issue at the “Great FrackNation Debate” on Monday, October 27, at 7pm. It will be held at the Brookhaven College Geotechnology Institute in Farmers Branch. This is a free, public event. Dallas and Denton area residents are invited and encouraged to attend. 

Tillman, former Dish mayor, claimed fracking polluted his town and could lead to cancer. FrackNation director McAleer is also an investigative reporter.

Says McAleer, “I’m really looking forward to bringing the truth to Dallas and to those who still believe the frauds being promoted by Tillman.”

The anti-fracking Texan issued the debate challenge and then tried to back out of it, according to McAleer, whose investigations uncovered that the evidence touted by Tillman to push his local anti-fracking campaign was gathered by the dubious Wolf Eagle Environmental Engineers and Consultants LLC whose findings and credentials were discredited.

In July, the Denton City Council voted against a fracking ban, 5-2, Breitbart Texas reported. Denton, a gas city, is located on top of the Barnett Shale, one of the largest natural gas reserves in the nation. Gas fields have produced a billion dollars in mineral wealth and allowed the city to proper, according to the Breitbart Texas article.

However, in August, environmental activist group Denton Drilling Awareness pushed for a fracking ban, resulting in the ballot measure from a meagre petition of 2,000 signatures, which Breitbart Texas reported as well.

On October 18, the Denton Record-Chronicle urged its readers to vote “no” on the ban, calling the proposition “misguided” and one that could “ultimately result in unfair burdens for local taxpayers, unjust restrictions and penalties for a valued Texas industry and unprecedented risks for the Denton County economy.

The opinion article proactively addressed criticism they might receive by stating that they, like fracking ban proponents, care about air quality, the water supply and noise factors and safety. It read, “but we believe there are more effective ways to achieve our goals to be free from those things. The proposed ban on fracking is an all-or-nothing approach that leaves no room for negotiation or compromise.”

The absence of fracking could have a devastating impact the Texas economy while anti-fracking claims remain to find validation.

According to the Houston Chronicle, “A recent report from The Perryman Group estimates that if fracking were barred, it could potentially cost Denton $251.4 million in economic activity and 2,000 jobs over the next 10 years; slash tax revenues by $5.1 million to the city; and reduce revenues to the Denton Independent School District by $4.6 million. That money would have to be made up somewhere in order to maintain essential city services. The guess here is that it would ultimately have to come out of residents’ pockets.”

The New York Times called FrackNation “provocative and meticulously researched.” It was released in 2013 and took an an indepth look at concerns posed by the 2010 film Gasland against the hydraulic processes for acquiring natural gas.

McAleer was also one of the directors of Not Evil Just Wrong, thedocumentary that unraveled the Al Gore inspired, faulty climate change sciences behind the former Vice President turned filmmaker’s ode to catastrophic global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.

“I urge everyone to join me in Dallas on Monday to add their questions to a growing list that Calvin Tillman refuses to address,” said McAleer.

The free event on October 27 will take place between 7pm-8:30pm at Brookhaven College Geotechnology Institute, Building H, Room H114, 3939 Valley View Lane in Farmer’s Branch. Seating is limited and is first come, first serve.

Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.