Fracturing planners: A study of their contribution to Australia’s coal seam gas debate

Turton, David

doi:10.1016/j.exis.2019.11.007

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Australia, by contrast, bears far more significant regulatory similarities to the UK. As Turton notes, in Australia, there is also "a strong case for using the professional diversity of planners and their exposure to a wide range of stakeholders to draw out the diversity of opinions" as "planners can potentially serve as a conduit for accessing industry and government perspectives on key [unconventional gas] issues, such as community protests against the [unconventional gas] sector and industry perceptions of the sector's environmental risks" (Turton, 2019). Turton offers a solution to the issue of lacking consideration of, among others, the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing, but this assumes a regulatory system akin to that found in the Australian structure.…”

Section: The Regulatory Positions Of the Devolved Nations In Relation...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Place and avoiding the race to the bottom of the fractured well

Pearson

2024

JPMD

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Purpose This paper aims to consider the potential implications of the layering of regulation in relation to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at the borders between the nations of the UK. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a qualitative research method grounded in particular in legal geography to examine the existing approaches to regulating hydraulic fracturing and identify the places and their features that are constructed as a result of their intersection at the borders of the nations comprising the UK. Findings The current regulatory framework concerning hydraulic fracturing risks restricts the places in which the practice can occur in such a manner as to potentially cause greater environmental harm should the process be used. The regulations governing the process are not aligned in relation to the surface and subsurface aspects of the process to enable their management, once operational, as a singularly constructed place of extraction. Strong regulation at the surface can have the effect of influencing placement of the site only in relation to the place at which the resource sought reaches the surface, whilst having little to no impact on the environmental harms, which will result at the subsurface or relative to other potential surface site positions, and potentially even increasing them. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited by uncertainty as to the future use of hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas within the UK. The issues raised within it would also be applicable to other extractive industries where a surface site might be placed within a radius of the subsurface point of extraction, rather than having to be located at a fixed point relative to that in the subsurface. This paper therefore raises concerns that might be explored more generally in relation to the regulation of the place of resource extraction, particularly at legal borders between jurisdictions, and the impact of regulation, which does not account for the misalignment of regulation of spaces above and below the surface that form a single place at which extraction occurs. Social implications This paper considers the potential impacts of misaligned positions held by nations in the UK in relation to environmentally harmful practices undertaken by extractive industries, which are highlighted by an analysis of the extant regulatory framework for hydraulic fracturing. Originality/value Whilst the potential for cross internal border extraction of gas within the UK via hydraulic fracturing and the regulatory consequences of this has been highlighted in academic literature, this paper examines the implications of regulation for the least environmentally harmful placement of the process.

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Section: The Regulatory Positions Of the Devolved Nations In Relation...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Place and avoiding the race to the bottom of the fractured well

Pearson

2024

JPMD

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“…In a deep dive analysis of community responses to shale gas development proposals in the United Kingdom focusing on the small village of Kirby Misperton in the North Yorkshire dales, Sherval reveals how concerned, active local residents have turned to protest to have their voices heard. Her work builds on a strong foundational base of similar legal geography inflected case‐study research about mining and coal‐seam‐gas exploration in Australia (Della Bosca & Gillespie, 2018; Ey & Sherval, 2016; Sherval & Graham, 2013; Turton, 2015, 2019). Crucially, this research links pressing global concerns about “transition” fuels for decarbonising energy sources to localised adverse experiences of this process.…”

Section: Australian Legal Geography Leadershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progressive and critical legal geography scholarship

Gillespie

O’Donnell

2023

Geographical Research

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“…The problems planners face with the fragmentation of projects and decision making is significant with regard to shale exploration [115]. It ensures the total picture of all shale oil and gas impacts is never fully considered and hence national and global burdens of air pollution that will affect small communities are not properly considered [116].…”

Section: Inequalities and Environmental Justice In Shale Explorationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lagging and Flagging: Air Pollution, Shale Gas Exploration and the Interaction of Policy, Science, Ethics and Environmental Justice in England

Watterson

Dinan

2020

IJERPH

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The science on the effects of global climate change and air pollution on morbidity and mortality is clear and debate now centres around the scale and precise contributions of particular pollutants. Sufficient data existed in recent decades to support the adoption of precautionary public health policies relating to fossil fuels including shale exploration. Yet air quality and related public health impacts linked to ethical and environmental justice elements are often marginalized or missing in planning and associated decision making. Industry and government policies and practices, laws and planning regulations lagged well behind the science in the United Kingdom. This paper explores the reasons for this and what shaped some of those policies. Why did shale gas policies in England fail to fully address public health priorities and neglect ethical and environmental justice concerns. To answer this question, an interdisciplinary analysis is needed informed by a theoretical framework of how air pollution and climate change are largely discounted in the complex realpolitik of policy and regulation for shale gas development in England. Sources, including official government, regulatory and planning documents, as well as industry and scientific publications are examined and benchmarked against the science and ethical and environmental justice criteria. Further, our typology illustrates how the process works drawing on an analysis of official policy documents and statements on planning and regulatory oversight of shale exploration in England, and material from industry and their consultants relating to proposed shale oil and gas development. Currently the oil, gas and chemical industries in England continue to dominate and influence energy and feedstock-related policy making to the detriment of ethical and environmental justice decision making with significant consequences for public health.

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Fracturing planners: A study of their contribution to Australia’s coal seam gas debate

Cited by 6 publications

References 63 publications

Place and avoiding the race to the bottom of the fractured well

Place and avoiding the race to the bottom of the fractured well

Progressive and critical legal geography scholarship

Lagging and Flagging: Air Pollution, Shale Gas Exploration and the Interaction of Policy, Science, Ethics and Environmental Justice in England

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