Learning from Lancashire: Exploring the contours of the shale gas conflict in England

Bradshaw, Michael J.; Waite, Catherine

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.08.005

Cited by 56 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Finally, the notable differences between perceptions of UGD in UK versus the US, as well as the similarities, reveal the need for better understanding of public perceptions in multiple nations debating UGD. Such perceptions directly affect the industry's social licence to operate (Lloyd et al 2013, Luke et al 2014, Gunzburger et al 2017, Bradshaw and Waite 2017. A dearth of social scientific information exists about UGD cross-nationally, even in many industrialised nations in Europe (Lis et al 2015) and in Canada .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in beliefs about ‘fracking’ between the UK and US

Evensen

Stedman

O’Hara

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in beliefs about ‘fracking’ between the UK and US

Evensen

Stedman

O’Hara

et al. 2017

Environ. Res. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…( Tawonezvi, 2017 ). The EU largely supports public participation in environmental decisionmaking and protest but the UK is not transparent or "encouraging" of the exercise of these civil rights, potentially undermining the right to protest 2 and effective public participation, particularly as a large part of the fracking debate concerns the need to obtain "social licence" ( Smith and Richards, 2015 ;Bradshaw and Waite, 2017 ).…”

Section: Gaps In Current Uk Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have shown that there is a signifi cant opposition to shale gas development in England, as demonstrated by the quarterly Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy surveys (BEIS, 2017a), which showed that in a survey of 2,180 UK households conducted between in April 2017, only 19% support shale gas, whereas 30% oppose it, and 49% stating that they neither oppose nor support shale gas development, with a majority stating their reasons as "not knowing enough about it" ( Bradshaw, 2017 ). The survey (BEIS, 2017a) found that the most commonly cited reasons for opposition were risks or uncertainty; concern over environmental degradation; contamination of water; and risk of seismic activity, in addition to the view that hydraulic fracturing is not a "safe" process ( Bradshaw and Waite, 2017 ).…”

Section: Public Perspectives and Local Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Energy, Resource Extraction and Society

Szołucha

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The majority of work has focused on the North American experience which has explored not only the perceived environmental harms suffered by communities but also the social and political tensions generated within locales where opinion is divided (see Briggle 2015;Gabrys 2017). There is a now a growing literature engaged with European experiences (see for example Bradshaw and Waite 2017;Cotton 2017) although analysis has been framed mainly around environmental perceptions since there is very limited direct experience of the industry thus far (see for example Evensen et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Questioning the local: environmental regulation, shale gas extraction, and the politics of scale

Beebeejaun

2019

Local Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The exploration and potential extraction of shale gasbetter known as frackinghas emerged as one of the most contentious dimensions to local environmental politics in the UK. Local residents and environmental activists have raised concerns about health, noise, ground water contamination, seismicity, environmental amenity, and other impacts of the industry on communities. Despite the complexities of shale gas extraction, an emphasis on the local has shaped key dimensions of the debate around the appropriate location for well pads to the relative exclusion of other issues. This paper draws on fieldwork in Lancashire, UK, to reflect on the political construction of scale in order to explore how an emphasis on "the local" can restrict political debate over shale gas to narrow concerns with land-use planning thereby obviating a fuller engagement with wider questions concerning risk, energy policy, and climate change. It is concluded that a more nuanced conception of scale is necessary for understanding how concerns with shale gas are diminished rather than strengthened through the current planning policy and regulatory regime operating in the UK. ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

Learning from Lancashire: Exploring the contours of the shale gas conflict in England

Cited by 56 publications

References 36 publications

Variation in beliefs about ‘fracking’ between the UK and US

Variation in beliefs about ‘fracking’ between the UK and US

Energy, Resource Extraction and Society

Questioning the local: environmental regulation, shale gas extraction, and the politics of scale

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About