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

ABSTRACT

The exploration and potential extraction of shale gas – better known as fracking – has 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.

KEYWORDS:

• Public participation
• planning
• community activism
• scale
• environmental regulation
• shale gas extraction

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the research participants who have been interviewed for this research and who have provided important insights. Thanks to Kiera Chapman, Matthew Gandy, Mike Raco, and Yvonne Rydin for their helpful feedback and encouragement on earlier drafts of this paper. Thanks to the editor and the referees for their thoughtful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Unconventional hydrocarbon extraction comprises of multiple processes including deep vertical and horizontal drilling. To release hydrocarbons, a process known as fracking or fracturing occurs. This is only one dimension of the extraction of shale gas but has become a commonly used term particularly in the media and by opposition groups. Industry and state do not favour the term as it has pejorative dimensions.

2 In a recent debate in the House of Lords, Lord Tebbit stated that this is “NIMBYism and it needs to be put down.” Hansard 9 October 2017 Vol 785. In the House of Commons, after a question to the prime minister from an MP opposed to fracking, Liz Truss MP labelled them a NIMBY on Twitter.

3 The events attended encompassed a range of groups. Local meetings had between five and fifteen attendees, local events had up to 100 attendees, and protests were several hundred people.

4 Petroleum Exploration and Development Licence 165 was granted by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) in 2008.

5 Cuadrilla identify eight sites in total but Elswick was purchased in January 2010 and was hydraulically fractured 1993 before Cuadrilla's ownership. All other sites have been either explored and are in the process of remediation or work has never been undertaken at one (Clifton). Roseacre Woods has been refused permission following a planning inquiry decision and Preston New Road is under active exploration.

6 See Preston New Road PNR Live 6 October 2017. Available at https://cuadrillaresources.com/media-resources/video-gallery/.

7 Telegraph, 11 June 2017.

8 Community activist REAF, interview with author (12 September 2012).

9 A seismic tremor 2.3 magnitude occurred 1st April and was reported by some people locally. This is a low level seismic event. See https://earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/research/BlackpoolEarthquakes.html

10 The US debate is highly contentious, and it is difficult to “prove” shale gas impacts due to the difficulties of epidemiological studies, lack of existing baseline data, and environmental monitoring. Whilst studies such as that by the Southern Baptist University identified fracking as the cause of earthquakes near Azle, Texas, the state regulator rejected these claims. The regulator is headed by political appointees.

11 Respondent verbal statement, June 2015 Planning Committee, Preston, UK.

12 Community organiser, Roseacre Awareness Group, 29 January 2015 (interview with author).

13 A total of 47 minor earth tremors have been reported between mid-October and mid-December. Work had to be suspended for 18 hours on three occasions in line with the Oil and Gas Authority regulations. See Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/11/fracking-blackpool-tremor-cuadrilla