And Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott has signed a new measure preventing cities and towns from banning the oil and gas drilling technique known as fracking. The measure also limits the ability of local communities to control where fracking takes place. It comes in response to a voter-approved ban on fracking in the city of Denton, where residents expressed environmental and health concerns about gas exploration within a few hundred feet of homes. Similar industry-backed bids to curb local control over fracking have appeared in other states.