Repository for Oil and Gas Energy Research (ROGER)

Abstract:
When discussing the effects of resource extraction in rural communities, academics commonly focus on specific and concrete impacts that fall nicely into the categories of environmental, economic, and social – for example, effects on water quality, jobs, and roads. A less common way of conceptualising effects of extractive industries, but more akin to the way in which rural residents discuss and experience the complex set of effects, is changes to way of life. A growing literature explores effects on ‘wellbeing’ and ‘the good life’ as important determinants of responses to development projects, and as necessary considerations for policies regulating such development. One approach to conceptualising the good life – Aristotle's ideas of eudaimonia (human flourishing) and the pursuit of eudaimonia (perfectionism) – remains underdeveloped as a means for characterising how rural residents respond to natural resource extraction. We use the example of unconventional gas development (UGD) to illustrate how definitions of human flourishing – and perfectionist pursuit of that flourishing – strongly motivate support for and opposition to a contentious extractive industry in the rural communities where development is occurring or is likely to occur. This occurs through commitments to: a rural way of life, retaining local population, beauty, peace, and/or quiet. Approximately fifty interviews across six US and three Canadian communities support this vital role for conceptions of human flourishing. The import of human flourishing to members of the public, and of them pursuing that flourishing through perfectionism, has crucial implications for communication and policy related to extractive development. Policy makers need to consider how the public's definitions for flourishing shape their support/opposition, and not just to focus on the economic and environmental impacts commonly discussed in policy discourse.

Abstract:
Recent advances in hydraulic fracturing technology have reduced US dependence on oil imports, inspiring claims that “energy independence” is within reach. In this article we contest the construction of space that undergirds this notion of energy independence. Specifically, we find that the discourse of “energy independence” constructs the world as a struggle between territorial states. The geographical worldview of the energy independence script is made of territorial states as containers of bounded, exclusive, sovereignty, referred to by Agnew as the “territorial trap”. This obscures how international networks of commerce and investment rest on a basis of binding links of interdependence, cooperation and coproduction (1994). Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative evidence from Pennsylvania, we show how elites used notions of struggles between territorial powers to legitimate the infusion of international circuits of capital into local extractive zones. We find that the global network of investment that settled in Pennsylvania, with the goal of exporting gas as LNG, directly contradicted the spatial assumptions made by energy independence rhetoric. In making our argument we draw on evidence from interviews with elites within the fracking debate in Pennsylvania.

Abstract:
The advent of new technologies such as directional drilling (D2) and the hydraulic fracturing technique (HFtech) has made it possible to enhance energy production from petroleum reserves. The procedures involved have however aroused public sentiments and triggered the debate on the economic importance of petroleum recovery processes. Public perceptions of the environmental health consequences of these processes have been fuzzy. Public survey was conducted using the United States as a case study to foster the development of the most effective policy relative to environmental health sustainability and energy independence. Participants (n = 1243) were surveyed on the prevalence and concerns for HFtech in proxy communities in 2015. Key to the perception inquiry was the knowledge of respondents on HFtech and the concerns relative to the exploration processes. Ordinal logistic regression and Poisson regression (Pλ) were used to interpret the responses obtained from the participants. The study determined mixed public view for HFtech based on the analyses conducted. Young men, on average, had the least degree of concerns, while older residents (60+ years old) are more inclined to have friends who support HFtech in the communities (p-value = 0.082). Through this study, a clearer global profile of perceived public risks can be developed in countries using HFtech, in determining risk acceptability and proper governance for shale gas development. The detailed survey carried out is important for the development of effective strategies for managing risky decisions to emerging energy development issues while balancing the need for a sustainable environment.

Abstract:
The impacts associated with unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction will be cumulative in nature and will most likely occur on a regional scale, highlighting the importance of using strategic decision-making and management tools. Managing possible impacts responsibly is extremely important in a water scarce country such as South Africa, versus countries where more water may be available for UOG extraction activities. This review article explains the possible biophysical and socio-economic impacts associated with UOG extraction within the South African context and how these complex impacts interlink. Relevant policy and governance frameworks to manage these impacts are also highlighted.

Abstract:
Abstract: As hydraulic fracturing to facilitate shale energy extraction expands into new regions, how people think about water’s multifaceted relationships to their lands and lives is being complicated and confounded. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 31 concerned residents of Ohio (United States), I argue that extraction “troubles” water in ways that extend far beyond empirical documentation of toxic contamination. My account illuminates how physical and conceptual relationships with water are concurrently and recursively transformed. For many Ohioans, formerly positive experiences of emplacement and embodiment are now infused with apprehension and alienation. As water infiltrates and motivates conversations about human health, residents’ rights, and contested knowledge, it has become culturally meaningful in newly anxiety-infused and hyper-vigilant ways. At the same time, water has come to fill a prominent political and oppositional position in unconventional extraction debates. Résumé: Les fractures hydrauliques qui facilitent l’extraction de gaz de schiste se développent dans de nouvelles régions. Conséquemment, la manière dont les personnes pensent le rapport de l’eau à leurs terres et leurs vies se complique et devient incertaine. Monétude se base sur des entrevues approfondies menées auprès de trente et un résidents de l’Ohio (É.-U.) et soutient que l’extraction « trouble » l’eau d’une manière qui dépasse largement ce qui estétabli par la documentation sur la contamination toxique. Mon article met en évidence la façon dont les relations physiques et conceptuelles impliquant l’eau sont simultanément et récursivement transformées. Pour de nombreux habitants de l’Ohio, leurs expériences autrefois positives d’emplacement et d’incarnation sont dorénavant empreintes d’appréhension et d’aliénation. L’eau génère des conversations sur la santé humaine, les droits des résidents et le savoir contesté, et devient culturellement significative à de nouvelles manières d’être, empreintes d’anxiété et d’hyper-vigilance. En même temps, l’eau remplit maintenant une position politique d’opposition de premier plan dans les débats d’extraction non-conventionnelle.

Abstract:
In this article, we review recent scholarship on fracking vis-à-vis the crosscutting problems of authority, resistance, and knowledge production. A focus on the sociocultural context within which hydraulic fracturing occurs and is made sense of in the United States provides us an opportunity to show gaps in understandings and propose further research to address them. Additionally, our focus on the US context demonstrates the importance of the historically particular and place-specific nature of resource extraction for understanding fracking as a social process. We argue that factors such as race, history, and colonialism are mobilized or obscured differently by scholars and local actors in order to establish and contest power as well as produce knowledge about fracking. Finally, we are interested in how to make better conceptual use of the future and emerging local debates amongst frontline actors. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Abstract:
Controversies surrounding hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas in Colorado’s Front Range have led some communities to embrace industrial development and others to block such development through widely-publicized bans and moratoriums. In contrast, some municipalities and county governments have adopted Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) as a strategy to exert some local control over the shape of oil and gas development. Adapting studies of similar supraregulatory agreements in the mining industry to the unique context of hydraulic fracturing in suburban Colorado, our mixed-methods research in one community analyzes the effectiveness of these agreements on three key counts: inclusion of community concerns, enforceability, and community engagement. Our analysis of how the agreements changed over time sheds light on why local opinion about the agreements in Erie was ambivalent, offering scholars and practitioners a critical assessment of a policy tool that is expanding from the mining to the unconventional energy industry.

Abstract:
Few people disagree on the need for sustainable development, but ideas about what it exactly means and how to pursue it diverge considerably. Although such normative conflicts are key to sustainability transitions, attention to such conflicts is lacking in transition studies. In this paper we understand societal conflict as an informal assessment of sustainable transition pathways with the potential for learning about normative ideas about the direction, speed and means of transitions. We analyse the Dutch societal conflict on the plans for shale gas exploration between 2010 and 2013, based on a media-analysis and interviews, in order to identify the normative conflicts and to find out to which extent these normative conflicts resulted in higher-order learning. The two main normative conflicts in the case firstly concern the role of gas in the energy transition, and secondly the balance between local and national interests in defining the public interest. With that, the societal conflict challenges two key elements of the Dutch welfare state. We conclude that there has been higher-order learning as regards the first conflict, but not as regards the second.

Abstract:
Data collected from a random sample of individuals in two counties in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas to examine (a) respondents’ self-reported familiarity with the process of hydraulic fracturing and (b) the associations between the contributions of information sources to self-reported knowledge about hydraulic fracturing and self-reported levels of familiarity with the process of hydraulic fracturing. The results of this study revealed that survey respondents in the Eagle Ford Shale region of Texas are more familiar with the process of hydraulic fracturing than has been reported in other studies. Moreover, the findings indicated that self-reported levels of familiarity with the process of hydraulic fracturing were positively associated with certain sources of information. Among those sources that reached statistical significance, the strongest contributor to respondents’ self-reported familiarity with hydraulic fracturing was information from the oil/natural gas industry.

Abstract:
Questions abound about the appropriate governance systems to manage the risks of unconventional oil and gas development, and the ability for citizens to engage and participate in those systems. In this paper, we map the development of shale gas governance in the US and UK; we highlight the contrasting systems of land ownership and mineral rights, compare the opportunities that these systems of governance present the general public to participate and become involved in shale gas decisions and consider the implications on issues of social justice.

Abstract:
New York municipalities passed more than 60 measures promoting high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), 2008–12. These policies and resolutions signaled to state officials that municipalities desired HVHF's promised economic benefits and were anxious for an end to the state's HVHF moratorium. They also may be evidence of municipalities proactively preparing for a drilling boom. Why did some jurisdictions adopt these measures while others did not? While scholarship suggests that policy adoption is facilitated when jurisdictions and citizens possess more resources, capacity appears to have a negative or negligible impact on pro-HVHF action. Such action appears more likely when local actors anticipate HVHF's potential gains but have not previously experienced substantial drilling, perceive that the industry could be viable locally, and can access relevant policy examples. Some lessons from conventional adoption scholarship may not apply when policies are symbolic, advocacy may be elite-driven, and mimicry is an important diffusion mechanism.

Abstract:
The development of shale gas in the United Kingdom (UK) using hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as ‘fracking’, remains in its infancy. Yet understanding public attitudes for this fledgling industry is important for future policy considerations, decision-making and for industry stakeholders. This study uses data collected from the (name removed for blind review) UK nationwide online survey (n=3823) conducted in September 2014, to consider ten hypothesises about the UK public's attitudes towards shale gas. From the survey data we can see that 43.11% of respondents support shale gas extraction in the UK. Furthermore, our results show that women, class DE respondents, non-Conservative party supporters, and respondents who positively associate shale gas with water contamination or earthquakes are less likely to support the extraction of shale gas in the UK. We also discuss potential policy implications for the UK government arising from these findings.

Abstract:
What drives local decisions to prohibit industrial land uses? This study examines the passage of municipal ordinances prohibiting gas development using hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in New York State. I argue that local action against fracking depended on multiple conceptions of the shale gas industry. Matching these alternative conceptions with prevailing spatial models of public response to industrial land uses—“not in my backyard,” “not in anyone’s backyard,” and “please in my backyard”—improves our understanding of where local contention might emerge and how it contributes to policy change. Results from event history and logistic regression analyses show, first, that communities lying above favorable areas of the shale did not pass anti-fracking laws because opposition to fracking was counteracted by significant local support for development. Fracking bans passed primarily in a geographic sweet spot on the periphery of targeted regions, where little or no compelling economic interest in development existed. Second, as fracking became the subject of a highly politicized national debate, local opposition increasingly reflected mobilization by political liberals. This trend is reflected in the increasing rate of ordinance adoption among Democratic-leaning communities outside the geographic sweet spot.

Abstract:
This study examined the relationships between narrative involvement, affect, risk perceptions, and environmental policy preferences. Experiment 1 involved a 3 (news, documentary, entertainment) × 2 (hydraulic fracturing, genetically modified organisms) mixed between- and within-subjects experiment. Results indicated a serial mediation model in which narrative involvement increased the likelihood of a negative affective response, in turn increasing risk perceptions and policy preferences for stricter regulation of environmental hazards. In Experiment 2, the pathway was tested for positively valenced content. Narrative involvement with positively valenced media produced a significantly lower negative affective response than negatively valenced media, but no difference terms of positive affect.

Abstract:
Many rural communities are facing complicated risks resulting from unconventional oil and gas development and hydraulic fracturing. This study focuses on residents’ experiences of risk and the factors limiting local leader’s efforts to protect residents. Data for this research were obtained through interviews with community leaders, industry officials, and focus groups with private citizens. Data collection occurred in four counties in the Eagle Ford Shale region of South Texas. Study participants shared examples of how their lives were impacted by increased truck traffic, food and housing insecurity, flaring of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas, and concerns about water contamination. Community leaders confront a tension between supporting economic growth and development associated with energy development, and managing these negative social and environmental outcomes. We identify three significant factors that weaken the power and limit the ability of local governments to effectively advocate for their communities. First, rural communities lack the staffing, expertise, and financial resources to properly cope with development. Second, the rural geography makes it difficult for local governments to work collaboratively across political borders. Third, the dominant conservative political values make it difficult for local leaders to advocate for increases in regional, state, or federal regulation.

Abstract:
Rural Pennsylvania, the epicenter of the Marcellus Shale region, hosts the most prolific unconventional natural gas extraction and production activity in the US. Farmers of small and midsized operations in Marcellus counties depend increasingly on incomes from booming natural gas operations, while the industry needs their land to access energy resources. These farmers thus bridge two economic sectors—unconventional natural gas production and agriculture. Related dynamics rapidly transform the social, economic, and environmental landscapes for Pennsylvania's rural communities. We ask: What, if any, are the environmental justice implications of the unconventional natural gas industry's presence in rural agricultural spaces, particularly for farmers with small and midsized operations? Presenting findings from 42 in-depth interviews, participant observation, and archival analysis, we show how farmers benefit from natural gas leases to support their agricultural livelihoods. However, they face a devil's bargain. Farmers risk entrenchment in a long-term web of natural resource dependence, increasingly unable to determine their livelihoods or land use on their own terms. Our study demonstrates how farmers' intersectoral dependence conditions procedural inequities and greater environmental risk. We show how farmers of small and midsized operations experience rural environmental injustices as they endure corporate bullying; face procedural inequities negotiating and enforcing lease terms; and increasingly contend with environmental risks associated with unconventional natural gas production.

Abstract:
A growing area of research has addressed public perception of unconventional oil and natural gas development via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”). We extend this research by examining how geographic proximity to such extraction interacts with political ideology to influence issue support. Regression analysis of data from a fall 2013 national telephone survey of United States residents reveals that as respondents’ geographic distance from areas experiencing significant development increases, political ideology becomes more strongly associated with issue support, with the liberal-partisan divide widening. Our findings support construal level theory's central premise: that people use more abstract considerations (like political ideology) the more geographically removed they are from an issue. We discuss implications for studying public opinion of energy development as well as for risk communication.

Abstract:
We evaluated population size and factors influencing environmental justice near oil and gas (O&G) wells. We mapped nearest O&G well to residential properties to evaluate population size, temporal relationships between housing and O&G development, and 2012 housing market value distributions in three major Colorado O&G basins. We reviewed land use, building, real estate, and state O&G regulations to evaluate distributive and participatory justice. We found that by 2012 at least 378,000 Coloradans lived within 1-mile of an active O&G well, and this population was growing at a faster rate than the overall population. In the Denver Julesburg and San Juan basins, which experienced substantial O&G development prior to 2000, we observed a larger proportion of lower value homes within 500 feet of an O&G well and that most O&G wells predated houses. In the Piceance Basin, which had not experienced substantial prior O&G development, we observed a larger proportion of high value homes within 500 feet of an O&G well and that most houses predated O&G wells. We observed economic, rural, participatory, and/or distributive injustices that could contribute to health risk vulnerabilities in populations near O&G wells. We encourage policy makers to consider measures to reduce these injustices.

Abstract:
In this article we review prior literature regarding the concept of social license to operate, and related concepts, including corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, stakeholder management and cumulative effects. Informed by these concepts, we search for newspaper articles published in North American provinces and states where the Barnett, Duvernay, Marcellus and Montney shale plays are located. Using these data, we tabulate coverage of stakeholder concerns related to hydraulic fracturing and wastewater practices, and compare the extent to which these concerns vary over place and time. Our vocabulary analyses identify differences in the types and quantities of newspaper coverage devoted to concerns regarding hydraulic fracturing activities in general and wastewater practices in particular. We interpret these differences as suggesting that obtaining a social license to operate is likely not a one size fits all proposition. By understanding which stakeholder concerns are most salient in particular places and times, oil and gas operators and regulators can better tailor their strategies and policies to address local concerns. In other words, the findings from this study indicate that conventional understandings of risk as a technical or economic problem may not be adequate for dealing with unconventional resource challenges such as hydraulic fracturing. Operators and regulators may also need to manage social and cultural risks.

Abstract:
In Canada's Yukon Territory, a legislative committee was tasked with assessing the risks and benefits of hydraulic fracturing. The committee designed an extensive participatory process involving citizens and experts; however, instead of information access and public hearings fostering an open dialogue and trust, these two channels failed to de-polarize debates over hydraulic fracturing. We argue that mistrust was reinforced because (1) weak participatory processes undermined the goals of public involvement, (2) scientific evidence and scientists themselves were not accepted as neutral or apolitical, and (3) strategic fostering of mistrust by actors on both sides of a polarized issue intensified existing doubt about the integrity and credibility of the process. The implications of a failure to restore trust in government are significant, not only for the issue of hydraulic fracturing, but for governance more broadly, as mistrust has spillover effects for subsequent public negotiations.

Abstract:
This article offers an analysis of the national level news media coverage of the risks and benefits surrounding hydraulic fracturing, using two different content analysis methods. First, we complete a manual content analysis on 150 articles by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. We examine differences across these newspapers in reporting on environmental, public health, and economic risks and benefits, including the actors who the newspapers cite and whether these actors convey risks and benefits with certainty or uncertainty. Second, we use a semi-automated coding technique to examine coverage of environmental, environmental damage, public health, and economic topics in 15 nationally distributed newspapers. Overall, we conclude that the two approaches to studying national media content offer some similar insights into how the political leaning of newspapers may result in different coverage of hydraulic fracturing, but manual and automated codings each present distinct strengths and weaknesses in understanding media coverage of this contentious issue.

Abstract:
Contemporary shale gas extraction, also known as ‘fracking’, has become one of the most contentious environmental issues facing Europe and North America. Academic and policy debates have hitherto focused principally on questions related to scientific disputes, risk perception, potential health impacts, and the wider economic and geo-political dimensions to energy security. This paper draws on extensive qualitative research in Texas and Lancashire, undertaken between 2012 and 2015, to explore how differing regulatory frameworks are shaped through highly localized discourses that include communities opposed to fracking. Whilst there are significant differences between these two examples, including the extent of environmental monitoring, the local context remains a pivotal arena within which the regulatory and technical dimensions to fracking are being contested and scrutinized. The two cases illustrate how community opposition has catalysed important processes that have enhanced understanding of the environmental and social impacts of shale gas extraction.

Abstract:
The study of public policy deals with subsystems in which actors cooperate or compete to turn their beliefs into policy solutions. Yet, most studies concern mature subsystems in which the main actors and their allies and enemies can easily be identified. This paper tackles the challenge of studying nascent subsystems, in which actors have begun to engage in politics but are uncertain about other actors’ beliefs. Actors therefore find it relatively difficult to identify their allies and opponents. Focusing on the Advocacy Coalition Framework, we examine three main ways in which actors might agree to support the same policy design before they decide whether or not to form long-term relationships within advocacy coalitions: they see the issue through the same lenses, they follow leaders, or they know each other from earlier cooperation. We use the case of fracking policy in Switzerland and the UK as a key example, in which actors have begun to agree with each other, but where final policy outputs were not yet defined, and long-term relationships not yet observable. We find that, when dealing with new issues, actors strongly rely on former contacts rather than shared ideologies or leadership.

Abstract:
Well-resourced and well-connected individuals, or “policy entrepreneurs,” often play an important role in advocating and securing the adoption of policies. There is a striking lack of inquiry into the ways that social networks shape the ability of these actors to achieve their aims, including the ways in which network ties may channel policy conflict. To address these gaps, we analyze data from an original survey and an original database of policies to assess the success of policy entrepreneurs (PEs) active in a highly contentious arena: municipal policymaking concerning high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in New York. We use text-mining to collect social network data from local newspaper archives, then use those data to construct municipal HVHF policy networks. Municipal anti-HVHF PEs appear more successful when they operate in less cohesive networks, act as bridges to relative newcomers to the governance network, and have a larger number of network connections. Pro-HVHF PEs appear more successful when they can forge high-value connections to key decision makers. Policy entrepreneurs on both sides of the issue are more successful when they have a greater number of sympathetic coalition partners.

Abstract:
Shale oil development can bring great reward to a community with greater opportunity, but also poses challenges to longtime community members, policy makers, businesses, and newcomers. Key to solving these challenges in a way that maximizes stakeholder interest is identifying the various place based community values and the attitudes of the stakeholders towards development. This article explicates the values and the concomitant attitudes, their interconnections, and their groundings in a detailed manner that provides a broader understanding of place based community values in a rural setting and how a transformative event such as shale oil development affects such values. This article also explicates the interconnections between the place based community values and three of the most frequently researched place conceptions: sense of place, attachment to place, and dependence on place. The findings clearly provide qualitative evidence to show that attitudes emerge on the basis of one’s perceived expectations or evaluations about how development affects the particular things that people value. Implications of community values and attitudes on planning and decision making are discussed. Findings of this article suggest three implications for shaping community strategies to handle community impacts of shale oil development: (1) improve feeling of safety and security through investment in public services; (2) establish and enhance social support groups; and (3) enhance sense of unity and togetherness through better community integration strategies.

Abstract:
Pennsylvania's rapid unconventional oil and gas (UOG) development-from a single well in 2004 to more than 6700 wells in 2013-has dramatically increased UOG waste transport by heavy trucks. This study quantified the amount of UOG waste and the distance it traveled between wells and disposal facilities on each type of road in each county between July 2010 and December 2013. In addition, the study estimated the associated financial costs to each county's road infrastructure over that period. We found that UOG wells produced a median wastewater volume of 1294 m(3) and a median of 89,267 kg of solid waste. The median number of waste-transport truck trips per well was 122. UOG wells existed in 38 Pennsylvania counties, but we estimated trucks transporting well waste traveled through 132 counties, including counties in West Virginia, Ohio, and New York. Median travel distance varied by disposal type, from 106 km to centralized treatment facilities up to 237 km to injection wells. Local roads experienced the greatest amount of truck traffic and associated costs ($1.1-6.5 M) and interstates, the least ($0.3-1.6 M). Counties with oil and gas development experienced the most truck traffic and incurred the highest associated roadway costs. However, many counties outside the active development area also incurred roadway repair costs, highlighting the extension of UOG development's spatial footprint beyond the active development area. An online data visualization tool is available here: www.nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/transportation-of-hydraulic-fracturing-waste.

Abstract:
Plans to replace an aging diesel backup energy plant with liquid natural gas (LNG) generators in Whitehorse, Yukon, resulted in a public outcry, involving community meetings, massive petitions, and demonstrations. Are these civil society protests just a case of a local siting dispute – a response to an unwanted industrial site in an urban neighborhood? Here, it is argued that siting debates are not the driver of these campaigns, but instead are harnessed by activists to advance a broader environmental movement. By linking the LNG project to more distant extraction, involving hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’), movement leaders portray the entire territory as part of the ‘local’ for Whitehorse residents. Movement leaders rely upon two key mechanisms: claiming insider status, and identifying visible symbols. This case reveals the strategic use by environmental movements of local concerns to recruit support for broader campaigns, and the value of local, place-based activism for broader environmental movements.

Abstract:
Research suggests that previous, current, and prospective extractive industry activities influence perceptions of new development. Studies that have drawn this conclusion, however, have usually focused on specific projects in specific communities. Here, these factors are examined on an aggregate, national scale. Combining geospatial data on extractive industry activities and survey data from a nationally representative sample (N = 1061), the influence of extractive industry activities on support for fracking is studied. While limited evidence is found for the impact of proximity to oil and gas wells or production on support for fracking, employment levels in the natural resources and mining sector in the respondent’s county and residence in an area experiencing active oil and gas development significantly increase support for fracking. The results highlight the role of spatial and community factors in shaping support for energy development.

Abstract:
Unconventional oil and gas technology such as hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) has created a boom in production in the United States. In this paper we add to the growing literature on public perceptions of risk and benefits related to fracking using data from Colorado. We find that trust in the oil and gas industry is powerful predictor of a range of risk and benefit perceptions while other ostensibly important variables—such as the extent of local drilling or the perceived economic significance of the oil and gas industry—have little role in risk and benefit perceptions. The effect of trust is robust across several different types of risk and benefits perceptions and survives the inclusion of an array of control variables. Moving forward, we suggest researchers work to understand the factors which create public trust in the oil and gas industry.

Abstract:
We study the effects of the property tax base shock caused by natural gas drilling in the Barnett Shale in Texas—a state that taxes oil and gas wells as property. Over the boom and bust in drilling, housing appreciation closely followed the oil and gas property tax base, which expanded the total tax base by 23 percent at its height. The expansion led to a decline in property tax rates while maintaining or increasing revenues to schools. Overall, each $1 per student increase in the oil and gas property tax base increased the value of the typical home by $0.15. Some evidence suggests that the cumulative density of wells nearby may lower housing values, indicating that drilling could reduce local welfare without policies to increase local public revenues.

Abstract:
Drawing from the Critical Discourse Analysis and Cultural Sociology of Space frameworks, this empirical analysis explores the discursive struggle between stakeholders of divergent viewpoints as they respond to the newfound spatial proximity of oil and gas extraction to homes and schools in suburban residential areas on Colorado's northern Front Range. Through an analysis of media, policy-making, and neighborhood meeting discourse, this study examines the social construction of space through policy narratives and regional debates about the American West's relationship to extractive industries. Results reveal that the discursive struggle over suburban drilling hinges upon the question of whether industrial activities belong in residential areas and is carried out through competing policy narratives that invoke differing (spatial versus aspatial) policy solutions. The deliberative quality of these policy narratives is constrained by existing spatial policy practices and further constrains democratic engagement.

Abstract:
Public apprehension over the environmental, social, and health impacts of unconventional gas drilling, or fracking, prompts various responses from oil and gas industries. Natural gas discourses operating in the Marcellus Shale Region, USA, for example, counter claims of environmental harm by emphasizing the economic growth that industry spurs. This article argues that corporate narratives operating in the Marcellus renew the jobs versus environment dichotomy by romanticizing labor identities in the region, binding Rust Belt identities to extraction in the past, present, and future of the region. The danger of this discursive move is the exclusion of alternative possibilities for working, living, and being without fossil fuel industries. I employ a critical analysis of one corporate advertising campaign, “Drilling Is Just the Beginning,” produced by the natural gas drilling company Range Resources, to demonstrate how extraction discourses construct futures that depend on shale gas development, thereby marginalizing possibilities for ecologically sensible alternatives.

Abstract:
In order to develop conceptual models that reflect the realities of networked communicative processes scholars must examine both the underlying network structure and the content of these ties. Using mixed methods, I apply a relational perspective to the role of digital technologies in transnational organizing, using activism against high-volume hydraulic fracturing as a case study. In-depth interviews are combined with social network analysis of hyper-linkages between organizations supporting a day of action calling for a ban on fracking, Global Frackdown. Analysis shows that activism against unconventional fossil fuels brings together very localized concerns about environmental risks associated with extractive industries with more abstract global concerns. I apply the concept of translocal to examine environmental organizations and movements. This conceptual shift focuses on the brokerage role of global-minded local groups in mediating global issues back to the hyper-local scale. While international NGOs play a coordinating role, local groups with a global worldview can connect transnational movements to the hyper-local scale by networking with groups that are too small to appear in a transnational network.

Abstract:
Hydraulic fracturing for shale gas is a controversial issue in most countries. In these controversies, actors use discursive boundary work to convince various audiences of their position. Discursive boundary work is a communicative strategy that involves the framing of facts in contrast to other kinds of arguments. In this article we develop the Dynamic Discourse Coalition (DDC) approach to study how discourse coalitions deploy discursive boundary work to confirm, integrate, polarize or disintegrate their own and opposing discourse coalitions. The DDC approach enables a deeper understanding of the dynamics of controversies about hydraulic fracturing and similar contested technologies by illuminating the influence of communicative processes on policy formation. Based on an analysis of policy documents, academic reports, newspapers, interviews and websites we compare the dynamics of contesting discourse coalitions in the Netherlands and New York. This analysis explains why policy formed in different ways in the cases, despite the apparent similarity of the discourse coalitions that emerged in the respective controversies.

Abstract:
This photo-essay examines how the leasing of private and public land for shale gas extraction (“fracking”) in Pennsylvania has initiated a “tragedy of the commons” in historically communal locales, degrading common-pool resources and weakening long-standing norms of sovereignty and reciprocity.

Abstract:
The purpose of this article is to analyze perceptions and activities of policy actors, who are actively involved in or knowledgeable about the politics of hydraulic fracturing in New York, Colorado, and Texas. The analysis is guided by research questions drawn from the Advocacy Coalition Framework that focus on policy actors’ policy positions, problem perceptions, political capacity, activities, and interactions. In doing so, we examine the differences between those policy actors who are opposed to hydraulic fracturing relative to those who support hydraulic fracturing across the three states using data from online surveys administered in 2013 and 2014. The results show polarization between opponents and proponents in their policy positions on hydraulic fracturing, which are associated with problem perceptions. Proponents and opponents of hydraulic fracturing also have different capacities, activities, and interactions. The results are similar across states but not without nuanced differences, including greater polarization in New York, higher levels of government support for proponents of hydraulic fracturing in Texas, and more frequent coalition building in Colorado.

Abstract:
Hydraulic fracturing has become a contentious issue around the globe. In the present study, using a sample of American adults (n = 412), the role of political orientation (conservative vs. liberal) and basic knowledge about fracking on fracking risk perception attitudes, fracking economic attitudes, energy reliance attitudes, trust of energy information sources, and preferred dwelling distance from energy operations was investigated. Basic knowledge about hydraulic fracturing as a possible moderating mechanism was also explored. Correlational and regression results revealed that political ideology and basic fracking knowledge are key predictors of fracking and energy source attitudes, and that the nature of the relation between ideology and fracking risk perceptions, fracking economic attitudes, reliance on natural gas, wind and solar, and distrust of government agencies, are influenced by an individual’s basic knowledge about fracking.

Abstract:
We examined community perspectives and experiences with fracking in Doddridge County, West Virginia, USA as part of a larger assessment to investigate the potential health impacts associated with fracking in neighboring Maryland, USA. In November 2013, we held two focus groups with community residents who had been impacted by fracking operations and conducted field observations in the impacted areas. Employing grounded theory, we conducted qualitative analysis to explore emergent themes related to direct and indirect health impacts of fracking. Three components of experience were identified, including (a) meanings of place and identity, (b) transforming relationships, and (c) perceptions of environmental and health impacts. Our findings indicate that fracking contributes to a disruption in residents' sense of place and social identity, generating widespread social stress. Although community residents acknowledged the potential for economic growth brought about by fracking, rapid transformations in meanings of place and social identity influenced residents' perceptions of environmental and health impacts. Our findings suggest that in order to have a more complete understanding of the health impacts of fracking, future work must consider the complex linkages between social disruption, environmental impacts, and health outcomes through critical engagements with communities undergoing energy development.

Abstract:
Hopke and Simis (Public Understanding of Science, online 4 October 2015) find that #fracking, the most popular of five shale-related hashtags analyzed from a 2013 period, is associated with pro-shale attitudes only 13% of the time and note that the dominant voice of the activist community, coupled with a lack of engagement from industry, is unexpected. This comment offers additional perspective on the sentiment- and actor-skewed result by noting that the term “fracking” is highly political, specifically because the spelling “frack” versus “frac” is associated with activism. Furthermore, in public speech, the industry tends to deemphasize the hydraulic fracturing process in favor of the product, consistent with the findings that #natgas is a relatively pro-industry hashtag.

Abstract:
Objectives. To investigate race and poverty in areas where oil and gas wastewater disposal wells, which are used to permanently inject wastewater from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations, are permitted.Methods. With location data of oil and gas disposal wells permitted between 2007 and 2014 in the Eagle Ford area, a region of intensive fracking in southern Texas, we analyzed the racial composition of residents living less than 5 kilometers from a disposal well and those farther away, adjusting for rurality and poverty, using a Poisson regression.Results. The proportion of people of color living less than 5 kilometers from a disposal well was 1.3 times higher than was the proportion of non-Hispanic Whites. Adjusting for rurality, disposal wells were 2.04 times (95% confidence interval = 2.02, 2.06) as common in areas with 80% people of color or more than in majority White areas. Disposal wells are also disproportionately sited in high-poverty areas.Conclusions. Wastewater disposal wells in southern Texas are disproportionately permitted in areas with higher proportions of people of color and residents living in poverty, a pattern known as “environmental injustice.” (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print January 21, 2016: e1–e7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.303000)

Abstract:
Driven by hydraulic fracturing, sand mining has expanded rapidly in western Wisconsin, with hundreds of mining operations appearing over the past several years. Silica sand is extracted from hills and then shipped by rail around the country, where it is pumped under high pressure with water and chemicals into oil and gas wells. An often overlooked dimension of America's unconventional energy boom, the growth of sand mining in Wisconsin has been incredibly divisive, generating wealth for some lucky landowners while creating new environmental hazards for others. This article documents how people experience mining-related changes and conflicts, drawing on ethnographic interviews with residents living next to mines, processing plants, and hauling routes. While not everyone experiences mining equally, I argue that people grappling with a sudden influx of mining activity suffer significant disruptions that erode their sense of place and belonging. These experiences, however, are rarely taken into account by policymakers, local officials, or others seeking to evaluate the costs and benefits of frac sand mining. This omission underscores the need for ethnographic research to deepen our understanding of how people are impacted by new resource extraction industries.

Abstract:
As global energy demand increases, the rapid expansion of the unconventional fossil fuel sector has triggered an urgent need for social, economic and policy research to understand and predict how this sector affects host communities and how governance systems can respond to changes presented by this sector. In response to this need, this paper addresses three linked objectives. The first is to review the literature on regional impacts of energy extraction, presented in the form of a framework of hierarchical effects. The second is to consider how these are playing out differently in the context of conventional compared with unconventional fossil fuels. The third is to draw attention to the institutional avenues for addressing these impacts, including an overview of the lessons from existing research on the human and policy dimensions associated with conventional energy industries. In particular, we consider the importance of multi-stakeholder dialog, which plays an important role in how regions respond to the challenges brought about through extractive industries. Overall, we demonstrate that experiences from conventional energy development provide a useful starting point for navigating the human and policy dimensions of unconventional energy for host communities and discuss how these experiences differ when unconventional energy seeks to co-exist with other land uses such as agriculture. The paper draws attention to the dispersed nature of impacts (positive and negative) and how this may shape winners and losers from unconventional energy development, particularly in regions with pre-existing land uses such as agriculture.

Abstract:
The US and Canada have been at the forefront of shale oil and gas development via hydraulic fracturing. Understanding public perceptions is important given the role that they may play in future policy decisions in both North America and other parts of the world where shale development is at a much earlier stage. We review 58 articles pertaining to perceptions, published between 2009 and 2015. Studies report mixed levels of awareness of shale operations, tending towards higher awareness in areas with existing development. While individuals tend to have negative associations with the term ‘fracking’, views on shale development are mixed as to whether benefits outweigh risks or vice versa: perceived benefits tend to be economic (e.g., job creation, boosts to local economies) and risks more commonly environmental and/or social (e.g., impacts on water, increased traffic). Some papers point to ethical issues (e.g., inequitable risk/benefit distribution, procedural justice) and widespread distrust of responsible parties, stemming from perceived unfairness, heavy-handed corporate tactics, and lack of transparency. These findings point to the contested, political character of much of the debate about hydraulic fracturing, and raise questions of what constitutes ‘acceptable’ risk in this context. We compare these results with research emerging in the UK over the same period. Future research should focus on nuanced inquiry, a range of methodologies and explore perceptions in varied social and geographical contexts. Both this and future research hold the potential to enhance public debates and decisions about shale gas and oil development.

Abstract:
Adapting a distinction prominent in discussions of science policy, the main points should be applying environmental ethical point for local government's decision making. Shale gas development (SGD) via horisontal drilling and fracking is touted for economic benefits and spurned for health and environmental impacts. Despite SGD's socioeconomically salience, few peer-reviewed, empirical studies document the distribution of positive and negative effects. The City of Denton, Texas has 280 active gas wells and over a decade of SGD. Here we use an environmental justice framework to analyse the distribution of SGD's costs and benefits within Denton. Our results show that Denton's mineral wealth is widely distributed around the USA, residents own 1% of the total value extracted, and the city government is a large financial beneficiary. In addition to distributional inequities, our analysis demonstrates that split estate doctrine, legal deference to mineral owners and SGD's uniqueness in urban centres create disparities in municipal SGD decision-making processes. The environmental justice issues associated with fracking in Denton also provide one possible explanation for residents' November 2014 vote to ban hydraulic fracturing.

Abstract:
With a long history of oil and gas production and potentially significant reserves of unconventional gas, Scotland represents a notable case amid the growing international controversy over unconventional gas development (UGD). This article applies argumentative discourse analysis to the Scottish debate over UGD and identifies several important storylines which have mobilised different discourse coalitions and shaped public opinion as well as policy-making. For now, anti-UGD storylines appear more encompassing and have achieved greater resonance. Of particular interest, however, is the role of the Scottish government as a third discourse coalition. Through a moratorium on all forms of UGD and a cautious ‘evidence-based approach', the government has established a form of discursive dominance and has successfully minimised electoral risks. But its anti-Westminster storyline – created in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 – has undermined the government's pragmatic strategy by invoking Scottish resistance to the UK’s pursuit of shale gas. While the evidence-based approach persists as the preeminent storyline, its interpretation has ‘drifted’ from (1) a modestly reformed planning policy to (2) an exercise in scientific fact-finding combined with a public consultation and, arguably, (3) to a precautionary approach that might lay the foundation for an extended moratorium.

Abstract:
This letter presents a distributive environmental justice analysis of unconventional gas development in the area of Pennsylvania lying over the Marcellus Shale, the largest shale gas formation in play in the United States. The extraction of shale gas using unconventional wells, which are hydraulically fractured (fracking), has increased dramatically since 2005. As the number of wells has grown, so have concerns about the potential public health effects on nearby communities. These concerns make shale gas development an environmental justice issue. This letter examines whether the hazards associated with proximity to wells and the economic benefits of shale gas production are fairly distributed. We distinguish two types of distributive environmental justice: traditional and benefit sharing . We ask the traditional question: are there a disproportionate number of minority or low-income residents in areas near to unconventional wells in Pennsylvania? However, we extend this analysis in two ways: we examine income distribution and level of education; and we compare before and after shale gas development. This contributes to discussions of benefit sharing by showing how the income distribution of the population has changed. We use a binary dasymetric technique to remap the data from the 2000 US Census and the 2009–2013 American Communities Survey and combine that data with a buffer containment analysis of unconventional wells to compare the characteristics of the population living nearer to unconventional wells with those further away before and after shale gas development. Our analysis indicates that there is no evidence of traditional distributive environmental injustice: there is not a disproportionate number of minority or low-income residents in areas near to unconventional wells. However, our analysis is consistent with the claim that there is benefit sharing distributive environmental injustice: the income distribution of the population nearer to shale gas wells has not been transformed since shale gas development.

Abstract:
There is growing recognition of the need to understand public attitudes to energy sources, such as shale gas, and to feed these into decision-making. This study represents the first detailed UK experimental survey of public perceptions of shale gas fracking, including analysis of the effects of different messages and the relative influence of different audience, message and contextual factors on support and risk perceptions in respect of shale gas fracking. Using an online survey (N = 1457) of the UK public, we find considerable ambivalence about shale gas, but also greater awareness of potential risks than benefits. Prior knowledge is associated with more favourable attitudes, although demographics, political affiliation and environmental values are strongest influences on perceptions. When provided with environmental or economic information about shale gas, participants became more positive – irrespective of their prior values or whether information is framed in terms of losses or gains. As expected, prior attitudes predict how information is received, with more attitude change amongst the most ambivalent respondents. We conclude that additional information about shale gas is more likely to be effective changing attitudes if focussed on this ’undecided’ group. Studies of this type are important for policy makers and industry alike.

Abstract:
Rural economic decline in the United States has contributed to new situational conditions under which men construct masculinity. Under these conditions, men define jobs and activities that were feminized during periods of economic stability as masculine. One exception to rural economic decline for men is economic growth associated with oil and natural gas development in geographical hot spots throughout the United States and around the world. Employment opportunities in the oil and gas industry largely favor men; however, it is unclear what effect this development has on local men because itinerant extralocal male workers complete most of the labor. This article conceptualizes masculinity as a social structure, and uses economic reports and theoretically distinct literatures on natural-resource-based masculinities and energy boomtowns to illuminate how multinational energy companies and a predominantly extralocal, male itinerant workforce in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region cause adverse situational conditions for local men's constructions of masculinity. Within the new masculine structure, extralocal men's constructions of hegemonic masculinity become more important for defining the local socially dominant masculinity, which subordinates local men's constructions of nonhegemonic masculinities in their own communities. The article concludes with a discussion of how the oil and gas industry's hegemonic masculinity impedes sustainable economic development and community well-being.

Abstract:
Unconventional shale oil and gas production plays a prominent role in boosting economic growth and stimulating wealth creation in many communities. However, because of potential social and environmental drawbacks, including a lack of affordable housing and groundwater contamination from drilling, unconventional shale development is highly contentious in many areas and has resulted in many community conflicts. Hydraulic fracturing, which is a specific technology utilized in unconventional shale development, has proved especially contentious because of concerns about its long-term environmental consequences. Given the fast pace of shale development, coupled with the controversy that surrounds it, we seek to understand what factors affect a local government official's stance on shale development and hydraulic fracturing. To do this we draw from value-belief-norms theory while additionally examining knowledge and community-level factors that can influence an official's position. In this study, we survey 308 local government officials across six shale plays in the United States to examine local officials' positions on shale development and hydraulic fracturing. We find that the more positively officials perceive the consequences of shale development, the less likely they are to support banning hydraulic fracturing. Additionally, we find that networks to other shale communities are positively associated with favoring a ban. Further, leaders with a bachelor's degree or higher are more likely to favor a ban than those with lower than a bachelor's degree.

Abstract:
The present study examines how itinerant energy workers in the Marcellus Shale region reject stigmatizing labels and construct a positive, work-related identity around sociopositive actions. Qualitative interviews (n = 22) with employees at one contract drilling company are the primary data collection method. Participants use several protective techniques to manage the dirty work stigma that they perceive Marcellus Shale residents ascribe to their work and project onto them. By reframing, recalibrating, and refocusing stigma onto personal and environmental safety, oil-field workers reinforce their preferred self-identities. A social weighting technique allows workers to condemn those community residents who condemn them. This study expands knowledge on how the dirty work label fosters occupational communities within natural resource-based labor, while complementing boomtown studies that focus almost exclusively on community residents.