Public Perception of the Natural Gas Industry: Data from the Barnett Shale

Abstract

Data collected in a general population survey from a random sample of individuals in two counties located in the Barnett Shale region of Texas were used to empirically explore issues associated with public perception of the natural gas industry. Moderate support was found for the hypothesis that individuals residing in places with diverse levels of energy development exhibit dissimilar perceptions of the energy industry. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses indicate that residents of the county where the natural gas industry is more mature (Wise County) exhibit somewhat more negative perceptions of the energy industry than do residents of the county where natural gas industry is less established (Johnson County). The results also reveal that mineral rights ownership is a relatively strong and consistent factor associated with public perception of the natural gas industry. Possible implications of these findings for the energy industry are proposed, as are suggestions for future research.

Keywords:

• Barnett Shale
• natural gas
• public perception
• survey research

Notes

¹The survey questionnaire was initially mailed to 800 randomly selected households in each county. Fifty-one questionnaires were returned as undeliverable from Johnson County; 16 came back from Wise County. None of the 67 undeliverable household addresses were replaced with new ones. Therefore, these 67 households were not factored into the final sample size. The sampling frames from which the samples were drawn consisted of county tax rolls.

²Cases with missing data on any of the variables used in the bivariate or multivariate analyses were excluded. Hence, a listwise deletion reduced the sample to 409 cases.

*p < 0.05

**p < 0.01.