The Politics Of Fracking

Over the last decade, the oil and gas industry has garnered a lot of support from the United States federal and state governments in the name of energy independence and economic prosperity. More specifically, hydraulic fracturing or fracking is said to not only make the production of affordable energy possible but also reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by substituting coal with natural gas in the utility sector. Behind the façade of many socio-economic and political benefits, the process of fracking causes serious environmental concerns. Dismissing the negative externalities of fracking simply raises the question, to what extent have communities close to fracking sites been adversely impacted by it? In this book, Sarmistha R. Majumdar studies four communities close to fracking well sites in Texas to help illustrate to what extent fracking regulations have been developed in Texas and how effective these regulations have been in safeguarding the interests of individuals in local communities amidst the lure of economic gains from the extraction of oil and natural gas from shale formations. Majumdar has developed a model to show stage by stage community actions to regain their quality of life and the consequences of their actions, if any, on state and local regulations and ordinances, and the oil and gas industry. This book will be an important resource for scholars of environmental and natural resource politics and policy in the United States.

This edited volume compares seven countries in North America and Europe on the highly topical issue of oil and gas development that uses hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” The comparative analysis is based on the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and guided by two questions: First, in each country, what are current coalitions and the related policy output? Second, based on the current situation, what are the chances for future policy change? This book is the first to use a social science approach to analyze hydraulic fracturing debates and the first application of the ACF that is deliberately comparative. The contributions in this book advance our understanding about the formation of coalitions and development of public policy in the context of different forms of government and economically recoverable natural resources.

The disputes around fracking, and oil and gas policy, follow a long tradition of complicated intergovernmental relationships. Proponents argue that fracking supports new and well-paying jobs, revitalizes state and local economies, and that it can help replace reliance on other fossil fuels. Skeptics and opponents contend that oil and gas production via fracking contaminates air and water resources, causes earthquakes, and can ruin the character of many communities. Examining the intergovernmental politics of the first oil and natural gas boom of the 21st century, The Fracking Debate, Second edition offers a holistic understanding of the politics that characterize oil and natural gas operations, including why local governments are challenging their state’s preemptive authority, in order to initiate a larger conversation about improving intergovernmental relationships. Author Jonathan Fisk presents a novel argument about the ways in which local, state, regional, and national approaches to governance of shale gas development can work together to reduce conflict and forward the interests of the communities exposed to development, asking important questions such as: What state structures govern state-local relations? What state institutions impact and shape oil and gas production? What is the policymaking context in the state? What are the costs and benefits of hydraulic fracturing at the national, state, and local levels? How are risks and rewards distributed within states? What local policies have challenged the state, and why would local communities challenge the state? The result is a book that demonstrates that when stakeholders acknowledge their interdependencies and one another’s expertise, they create, design, and implement more responsive, strategic, and targeted public policies. The Fracking Debate, Second edition will be required reading for courses on oil and gas policy in the United States, environmental politics, and domestic energy politics, as well as a vital reference for practitioners and policymakers working in these fields.

Working to demystify the enigmatic process behind enacting public policies, The Politics of Meaning Struggles uses the case of the 2011 prohibition of hydraulic fracturing by the French government to address the wider phenomenon of governmental shifts in policy decisions.

Over roughly the past decade, oil and gas production in the United States has surged dramatically—thanks largely to technological advances such as high-volume hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as “fracking.” This rapid increase has generated widespread debate, with proponents touting economic and energy-security benefits and opponents highlighting the environmental and social risks of increased oil and gas production. Despite the heated debate, neither side has a monopoly on the facts. In this book, Daniel Raimi gives a balanced and accessible view of oil and gas development, clearly and thoroughly explaining the key issues surrounding the shale revolution. The Fracking Debate directly addresses the most common questions and concerns associated with fracking: What is fracking? Does fracking pollute the water supply? Will fracking make the United States energy independent? Does fracking cause earthquakes? How is fracking regulated? Is fracking good for the economy? Coupling a deep understanding of the scholarly research with lessons from his travels to every major U.S. oil- and gas-producing region, Raimi highlights stories of the people and communities affected by the shale revolution, for better and for worse. The Fracking Debate provides the evidence and context that have so frequently been missing from the national discussion of the future of oil and gas production, offering readers the tools to make sense of this critical issue.

When Fracking Comes to Town traces the response of local communities to the shale gas revolution. Rather than cast communities as powerless to respond to oil and gas companies and their landmen, it shows that communities have adapted their local rules and regulations to meet the novel challenges accompanying unconventional gas extraction through fracking. The multidisciplinary perspectives of this volume's essays tie together insights from planners, legal scholars, political scientists, and economists. What emerges is a more nuanced perspective of shale gas development and its impacts on municipalities and residents. Unlike many political debates that cast fracking in black-and-white terms, this book's contributors embrace the complexity of local responses to fracking. States adapted legal institutions to meet the new challenges posed by this energy extraction process while under-resourced municipal officials and local planning offices found creative ways to alleviate pressure on local infrastructure and reduce harmful effects of fracking on the environment. The essays in When Fracking Comes to Town tell a story of community resilience with the rise and decline of shale gas production. Contributors: Ennio Piano, Ann M. Eisenberg, Pamela A. Mischen, Joseph T. Palka, Jr., Adelyn Hall, Carla Chifos, Teresa Córdova, Rebecca Matsco, Anna C. Osland, Carolyn G. Loh, Gavin Roberts, Sandeep Kumar Rangaraju, Frederick Tannery, Larry McCarthy, Erik R. Pages, Mark C. White, Martin Romitti, Nicholas G. McClure, Ion Simonides, Jeremy G. Weber, Max Harleman, Heidi Gorovitz Robertson

A series of concurrent pressures in the early 2000s--climate change, financial system crashes, economic development in rural regions, and shifts in geopolitics--intensified interest in alternative energy production. At the same time, rising oil prices rendered alternative fuels a more economically viable option. Among these energy sources, liquid biofuels (bioethanol and biodiesel) and natural gas derived from hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") took center stage as promising commodities and technologies. But controversy quickly erupted in surprisingly similar ways around both renewable fuels. Global enthusiasm for these fuels--and the widespread projections for their production around the world--collided with local politics in debates over "food versus fuel" and concerns over "land grabs." What seemed, from a global perspective, like empty lands ripe for development were, to rural communities, vibrant and already contested spaces. As proposals for biofuels and fracking landed in specific communities and ecosystems, they reignited and reshaped old disputes over land, water, and decision-making authority. Fueling Resistance offers an account of how and why controversies over these different fuels unfolded in surprisingly similar ways in the global North and South. To explain these convergent dynamics of contention and resistance, Kate J. Neville argues that the emergence of grievances and the patterns of resistance to new fuel technologies depends less on the type of energy developed (renewable versus fossil fuel) than on intersecting elements of the political economy of energy: finance, ownership, and trade relations. As local commodities enter global supply chains and are integrated into existing corporate structures, opportunities arise to broker connections between otherwise disparate communities. Neville looks at biofuels in Kenya and fracking in the Canadian Yukon and shows how organizers connect specific energy projects to broader issues of globalization, climate, food, water, and justice. Taken together, the intersecting elements of the political economy of energy shape the contentious politics of biofuels and fracking at both local and global scales, and help explain how and why particular mechanisms of contention emerge at different times and places.

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology, grade: 1, Massey University, New Zealand, language: English, abstract: Throughout the modern era, particularly with the development of new and innovative technologies, conflict has existed between the environment and those who inhabit it. With the advent of highly industrialised technology during the 20th century conflict has been on a steady increase as there are often dialectical processes involved between those creating technological innovations and those who become unwittingly involved in them. One environmental conflict called hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’ as it is commonly referred to, is a profitable industrial practice whereby natural gas is extracted from rock layers in the ground. Fracking is an environmental conflict arising from economic and political marginalisation based primarily on class divisions. This will be demonstrated first through describing fracking and how it is an environmental conflict, by explaining how fracking fits into a political and economic framework, and by finally outlining the cultural component, that is how marginalised socio-economic and ethnic groups are affected by the practice of fracking. Political ecology theory will be applied in order to gain an understanding of the complexities of fracking as this theory focuses on the mutual development of both political and ecological change. It is acknowledged that whilst applying a political ecology perspective is an effective anthropological method, it is also necessary to apply other anthropological theories in order to gain a more holistic analysis.