Repository for Oil and Gas Energy Research (ROGER)

Abstract:
How do people interpret ambiguous and uncertain events? This study explores this question in the context of unconventional oil and gas development, or “fracking”, with implications for natural resource extraction generally. Drawing on the theories of social representations and framing, we test the hypothesis that legacies of natural resource extraction – conceptualized here as collective schemata of interpretation – shape perceptions and actions toward new forms of energy development. Based on an analysis of survey data from the “Twin Tiers” regions of New York and Pennsylvania (n = 590), we find that negatively perceived legacies of past resource dependence, net of other factors, lead to opposition and political behaviors related to unconventional oil and gas development. Our findings suggest that regional legacies of natural resource extraction act as a sense making tool, working to translate the ambiguous, novel phenomenon of unconventional oil and gas development into something understandable in light of past experiences.

Abstract:
Increased hydraulic fracturing operations (also known as ‘fracking’) in the U.S. have introduced a larger portion of the public to new and more extensive risks and benefits: from concerns of impacts on water quality and human health to benefits from increased oil and gas production and local economic development. As most policy affecting fracking occurs at the state-level, it is important to understand how citizens’ support for the technology is shaped by their states’ industrial, environmental, and socioeconomic experiences. Using a nationally representative survey, we construct a multilevel model to understand how individuals’ support for fracking varies as a function of both individual- and state-level characteristics. At the state-level, we find that people residing in states with a higher poverty rate and higher ground water use for public drinking supply are more likely to support fracking. At the individual level, the relationships between risk/benefit perceptions and support vary as a function of the state people live in. Additionally, the positive relationship between conservatism and support for fracking is stronger for people residing in states with a higher poverty rate. Based on these findings, we discuss the dynamics of public opinion in social contexts and implications on energy policymaking.

Abstract:
Proposals to use the process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract natural gas in the United Kingdom has been met with both opposition and support as has often been the case for new extractive industries exploring new techniques or applications thereof. An idiosyncratic feature of the debate surrounding hydraulic fracturing is however the seeming lack of congruence of the concerns raised by experts and civic opposition. The authors consider the potential implications of this fragmentation of fears surrounding the process for its future regulation. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Abstract:
The relationship between emphasis framing and public opinion has received considerable attention in political science, psychology, and mass communication studies. However, what moderating role perceived knowledge plays in influencing emphasis framing remains unsettled. We explore this relationship using a survey-experiment embedded within a large-N, nationally representative survey that allows us to test two specific hypotheses. First, we empirically test whether an emphasis frame influences policy support. Second, we test the moderating effect of perceived knowledge. We test the emphasis framing effects of the name given to a hot-button political issue, while controlling for other survey treatments. Furthermore, we evaluate the degree to which perceived knowledge of the issue moderates the relationship between the emphasis frame and support for hydraulic fracturing. We find support both for the role emphasis framing plays and for perceived knowledge as a moderator.

Abstract:
Following the advent of hydraulic fracturing to effectively collect natural gas and oil, there has been growing interest in placing exploration and extraction wells in or adjacent to public park and forest systems across North America and Europe. At the heart of the debate about leasing public parkland is the concern that park acreage and accessibility will be lost to fracking operations, thereby decreasing park attendance. In this study, we apply value-belief-norm theory to evaluate park users’ general attitudes toward fracking and public policy and their perceptions of fracking's impact on their recreational activity. A survey of 255 park users in the Appalachian Basin of the United States indicated that individuals holding strong pro-environmental attitudes in general would likely avoid parklands that are affected by fracking operations. Additionally, a majority of respondents reported concern that fracking would disrupt park access and thusly supported legislative bans of fracking in public parklands. Management implications This study provides initial insight into park users’ attitudes toward hydraulic fracturing, especially how it relates to their recreational usage. Specially, the results indicate: • Park users are concerned that fracking operations near local, state, or national parks would disrupt the accessibility and usage of those parks. • Knowledge of fracking and the technological processes behind it is mixed among park users, suggesting that educational outreach efforts may contribute to greater support of or opposition to fracking projects. • Local, state, or federal land managers considering leasing public land for oil or gas exploration must work with policymakers and energy operators to mitigate both the actual and perceived impacts on park usage and recreational pursuits. • Additional research is necessary to evaluate the degree to which park usage has been impacted by park-proximate fracking operations.

Abstract:
Public opinion plays an important role in shaping the policy debate over hydraulic fracturing at both the state and national level. However, most Americans report having little to no information about this controversial practice that has transformed the U.S. energy market. Employing an experiment embedded on a nationally representative survey, we examine how citizens respond to arguments concerning the costs and benefits of fracking, and incorporate them into their policy preferences. Arguments emphasizing the economic benefits of fracking bolster support for the technique; however, these gains are completely canceled if paired with a discussion of fracking's environmental costs. Additionally, we find mixed evidence of partisan motivated reasoning in how this information is processed. Individuals whose partisan attachments and preexisting beliefs about global climate change conflict are particularly responsive to arguments about the benefits and costs of fracking. Our results have important implications for scholars and policymakers concerned with partisan polarization in public opinion toward energy and environmental policy.

Abstract:
Research across several decades has mapped the way complex environmental issues with complicated policy implications are often differentially framed within the media, public, and policy agendas with major implications for how they are understood, discussed, and decided. Building on this work, this this study compared news coverage of the debate over natural gas “fracking” in New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina between the period 2008 and 2013. Examining state newspapers, the analysis evaluated the types of sources used, the assertions of these sources, and how the issue of fracking was framed. From a general perspective, this study reveals how differences in framing of an environmental and scientific controversy can be attributed to the locally relevant sources used in reporting, as well as the political, economic, and social factors that might be unique to a state. Specific to the debate over natural gas “fracking,” this study adds to our understanding of how such state-based factors influence the portrayal of the issue in the news media.

Abstract:
Shale gas and oil production and prospective development are increasing, but methods for shale extraction (‘fracking’) have been met with opposition. This study shows that informed discourse around shale development focussed on risks or doubts about benefits in a similar manner across the US and UK.

Abstract:
Oil and gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing is controversial, with government support but mixed public opinion. Deliberative research shows that securing public support may be difficult because citizens in the United States and United Kingdom are sceptical of government and industry motives.

Abstract:
This article applies the Policy Conflict Framework (PCF) to describe and explain the characteristics of policy conflict within the oil and gas subsystem in Colorado. We use data from a survey of policy actors to assess three cognitive characteristics of policy conflict: divergence in policy positions, perceived threats from opponents’ positions, and an unwillingness to compromise. Aggregating these indicators across policy actors in the subsystem, we find a moderately high level of policy conflict intensity, but we also find substantial variation in the characteristics of policy conflict across policy actors. To help explain this variation, we examine how interpersonal and intrapersonal attributes of policy actors relate to the characteristics of policy conflict. In particular, we find that insular policy actor networks, interest group affiliations, and rigidity of risk and benefit perceptions associate more consistently with conflict characteristics than political views, education, or experience. We conclude with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of this first application of the PCF and reiterate the need for theoretically and empirically rigorous measures of policy conflict.

Abstract:
Prior surveys have sought to gauge American public opinion toward shale gas development. Research on environmental hazards has produced conflicting findings related to the role of proximity in predicting attitudes. This study analyzes how perceived and actual proximity to active shale gas development in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas predicts individual preferences for moratoria. We implement a conditionally parametric probit, which accounts for geographic variation in coefficient values. Our results suggest that attitudes toward the potential benefits and risks associated with shale gas development play a larger and more consistent role in predicting preference for moratoria than proximity or other sociodemographic factors. Our methodology allows for inferences related to the extent of geographic variation in coefficient values. Our results indicate that the role of proximity in predicting preference for moratoria differs based on whether a respondent resides in an urban or rural area or within a shale play.

Abstract:
Prior research on the impacts of boomtowns on youth provides mixed results. Recent qualitative work suggests youth are ambivalent about change associated with extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. The Rural Youth Education longitudinal study of youth in rural Pennsylvania provides a unique opportunity to examine youth views about their communities before and during development of the Marcellus Shale. We use two waves of data from 10 rural school districts to assess differences in youth reports of how much they liked their community pre-Marcellus (2005) and during Marcellus activity (2009), creating a natural experiment. Youth characteristics, aspirations, perceptions of job and educational opportunities, and views about their community are included in multinomial multivariate logistic regression models to predict how much youth like their community. We find no difference in youth liking their community pre-Marcellus, but a larger share of youth in communities experiencing Marcellus activity by 2009 like their community “a lot” than those in areas not affected. The Marcellus effect strengthens when controls for other factors typically associated with extraction activity and views of community are included in the model, suggesting other, unmeasured aspects of Marcellus-related activity influence how much youth like their community.

Abstract:
Introduction: The past decade in the United States has been marked by an unprecedented expansion of unconventional oil and gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (i.e., fracking). Concerns have arisen regarding potential health and environmental risks associated with the use of the fracking process. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine community perceptions, concerns, and knowledge of environmental health issues related to fracking in three Texas counties near one of the most active shale plays in South Texas, the Eagle Ford Shale.Methods: A convenience sample of 153 adults over the age of 18 years in three rural South Texas counties completed a 46-question survey. Demographic information, perceptions of environmental health risks, and knowledge of potential environmental health effects related to fracking were obtained. A validated health literacy measure was also used to assess participants’ health literacy.Results: Participants were predominantly female (61%), white (75%), and Hispanic (62%). A majority owned land (53.6%) and had lived in their respective county for over 21 years (54%). Only 32% percent of participants had marginal or inadequate health literacy though a larger percentage of participants had limited knowledge of potential environmental health risks related to fracking.Conclusions: Approximately one third of participants had less than adequate health literacy as measured by the BRIEF. A high percentage of the population demonstrated limited knowledge regarding the potential environmental health impacts of fracking, suggesting limited environmental health literacy. Findings point to the need for environmental health specific assessments and focused environmental health promotion strategies.

Abstract:
We utilize statewide surveys conducted in Maryland and Louisiana to investigate whether including the phrase “fracking or hydraulic fracturing” in a survey question influences self-reported awareness, perceptions of safety, or support for the drilling practice. We find that question wording effects are only present in the context of state support for additional drilling and only among Louisiana residents. Additional analysis reveals that the effects of question wording are contingent on partisan affiliation. Republicans are more inclined to support drilling but become less certain when the phrase “fracking or hydraulic fracturing” is used.

Abstract:
Evensen, D., R. Stedman, and B. Brown-Steiner. 2017. Resilient but not sustainable? Public perceptions of shale gas development via hydraulic fracturing. Ecology and Society 22(1):8. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09022-220108

Abstract:
The professionalization of environmental advocacy in the United States has pushed grassroots environmental activists to the margins of federal and state policy arenas. Frequently, individuals or communities who will be directly affected by environmental policy decisions are excluded from participating in policy discussions. Unable to compete with professionalized, national environmental organizations for legislative influence, informal, grassroots environmentalists are compelled to test out new models of organizing that leverage political power outside of institutionally sanctioned venues. This article examines the motives and outcomes of a grassroots social movement to prohibit unconventional shale development (“fracking”) through exercising home rule authorities in rural Southern Illinois. In Illinois, grassroots anti-fracking activists initially collaborated with a statewide coalition of environmental organizations lobbying for a moratorium on fracking in the state. I examine how conflict between coalition partners pushed grassroots anti-fracking activists to adopt new, localized models of organizing to achieve their policy goals. In these local efforts, I find that the same structural features of grassroots groups that enable strategic innovation also prevent the dispersion of authority in informal groups, ultimately undermining their creative capacity.

Abstract:
In 2015, Hopke & Simis published an analysis of social media discourse around hydraulic fracturing. Grubert (2016) offered a commentary on the research, highlighting the politicization of terminology used in the discourse on this topic. The present article is a response to Grubert (2016)’s commentary, in which we elaborate on the distinctions between terminology used in social media discourse around hydraulic fracturing (namely, ‘frack,’ ‘fracking,’ ‘frac,’ and ‘fracing’). Additionally preliminary analysis supports the claim that industry-preferred terminology is severely limited in its reach. When industry actors opt-out of the discourse, the conversation followed by the majority of lay audiences is dominated by activists. exacerbating the political schism on the issue.

Abstract:
The elements that influence the social acceptance of subsurface resource exploitation are analysed for a project engaged in unconventional gas production in Lorraine, a former mining area of France which now has strong unemployment. Champions of this project portray it as an opportunity to revitalise the economy in this hard-pressed region. Yet, social acceptability remains a key issue, particularly among people who live at the edge of the former mining zone and are not familiar with underground resource extraction. We examine the “social representations” of the population as well as investigate the roots of the contrasting representations we found in terms of the “distance to the object” concept that we introduce. We conclude that social acceptance must be considered both in terms of spatiality (distance) and temporality (historical).

Abstract:
Shale development – extraction of oil and gas from shale rock formations using hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking’ – has become a critical focus for energy debates in the US and UK. In both countries, potential industry expansion into new areas for shale extraction is expected to produce a wide range of environmental and social impacts and to change the configuration of future energy systems. To engage with emergent views on these complex, multi-scale issues, we held a series of day-long deliberation workshops (two in the US and two in the UK) designed and facilitated for diverse groups of people to discuss a range of possible consequences and meanings of shale development. Amid nuanced differences between and within national contexts, notable similarities in views were tracked across all four workshops. Concerns in common were not limited to specific risks such as water contamination. Participants also questioned whether shale development was compatible with their visions for and concerns about the longer-term future – including views on impacts and causes of climate change, societal dependency on fossil fuels, development of alternative energy technologies, the perceived short-term objectives of government and industry agencies, and obligations to act responsibly toward future generations. Extending prior qualitative research on shale development and on energy systems change, this research brings open-ended and cross-national public deliberation inquiry to bear on broader issues of climate change, responsibility, and ideas about how shale development might undermine or reinforce the energy systems that people consider important for the future.

Abstract:
In this paper, I examine corporate environmental communication on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and industry efforts to shape public perception of resource extraction and its impacts on the environment. I look at how the oil and gas industry (OGI) frames fracking to ease public fear by downplaying risk and shifting its scale with rhetoric presenting the benefits of this emergent technology. Contrasting and building on ecological modernisation versus risk society ideas, I use OGI print advertising supplemented by corporate social responsibility statements and other online material to critically evaluate framing in light of the practice of corporate greenwashing. Findings reveal OGI efforts to positively portray fracking in the interest of unfettered resource extraction and profits from energy production. Several themes emerge in OGI framing rhetoric, starting with the establishment of trust through education and claims of transparency and continuing with ideas touting safety and responsibility, scientific progress, economic benefits and jobs, energy security, environmental protection, and sustainability. On the whole, such rhetoric reflects ecological modernisation ideas that shift the perception of risk and its consequences, framing fracking in a way that obscures the negative impacts of dependency on a fossil fuel-based economy.

Abstract:
Unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) has spurred an unprecedented boom in onshore production in the US. Despite a surge in related research, a void exists regarding inquiries into policy outcomes and perceptions. To address this, support for federal regulatory exemptions for UOGE is examined using survey data collected in 2015 from two Northern Colorado communities. Current regulatory exemptions for UOGE can be understood as components of broader societal processes of neoliberalization. Free market ideology increases public support for federal regulatory exemptions for UOGE. Perceived negative impacts do not necessarily drive people to support increased federal regulation. Utilizing neo-Polanyian theory, interaction between free market ideology and perceived negative impacts is explored. Free market ideology appears to moderate people's views of regulation: increasing the effect of perceived negative impacts while simultaneously increasing support for deregulation. To conclude, the ways in which free market ideology might normalize the impacts of UOGE activity are discussed.

Abstract:
A simple explanation for why another's perspectives on unconventional gas development via hydraulic fracturing differ from one's own is that people are uninformed. Such an answer employs the deficit model of communication and understanding-shown for a quarter century to be inadequate for explaining public perceptions and behaviors. A more likely explanation, but far more challenging for an easy "fix", is that values fundamentally shape views. In autumn 2014, I taught an undergraduate course entirely on unconventional gas development (UGD) via hydraulic fracturing (often called "fracking"). I evaluated the effects of intensive education on attitudes about UGD by presenting my students with the same survey on the first and penultimate days of class. Overall attitudes changed little, despite substantial increases in self-reported knowledge and changes in beliefs about impacts associated with UGD. This poses a challenge for energy policies and regulation built off the assumption that additional education can readily change attitudes. I consider ways of approaching policy that respond to education's limited effects on attitudes about UGD.

Abstract:
Abstract In decision-making on the politically-contentious issue of unconventional gas development, the UK Government and European Commission are attempting to learn from the US experience. Although economic, environmental, and health impacts and regulatory contexts have been compared cross-nationally, public perceptions and their antecedents have not. We conducted similar online panel surveys of national samples of UK and US residents simultaneously in September 2014 to compare public perceptions and beliefs affecting such perceptions. The US sample was more likely to associate positive impacts with development (i.e., production of clean energy, cheap energy, and advancing national energy security). The UK sample was more likely to associate negative impacts (i.e., water contamination, higher carbon emissions, and earthquakes). Multivariate analyses reveal divergence cross-nationally in the relationship between beliefs about impacts and support/opposition – especially for beliefs about energy security. People who associated shale gas development with increased energy security in the UK were over three times more likely to support development than people in the US with this same belief. We conclude with implications for policy and communication, discussing communication approaches that could be successful cross-nationally and policy foci to which the UK might need to afford more attention in its continually evolving regulatory environment.

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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.