New rig on the block: spatial policy discourse and the new suburban geography of energy production on Colorado's Front Range

ABSTRACT

Drawing from the Critical Discourse Analysis and Cultural Sociology of Space frameworks, this empirical analysis explores the discursive struggle between stakeholders of divergent viewpoints as they respond to the newfound spatial proximity of oil and gas extraction to homes and schools in suburban residential areas on Colorado's northern Front Range. Through an analysis of media, policy-making, and neighborhood meeting discourse, this study examines the social construction of space through policy narratives and regional debates about the American West's relationship to extractive industries. Results reveal that the discursive struggle over suburban drilling hinges upon the question of whether industrial activities belong in residential areas and is carried out through competing policy narratives that invoke differing (spatial versus aspatial) policy solutions. The deliberative quality of these policy narratives is constrained by existing spatial policy practices and further constrains democratic engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• Unconventional oil and gas extraction
• hydraulic fracturing
• cultural sociology of space
• critical discourse analysis
• American West
• suburbs

Notes

1. Front Range is a colloquial term for Colorado's most populous region, which runs north-to-south where the Rocky Mountain foothills meet the plains. The suburbs that are the subject of this analysis extend from Denver's north side through Fort Collins.

2. Unconventional oil and gas extraction is defined as the process of extracting hydrocarbons from “unconventional” geologic formations with low permeabilities via horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.

3. The keyword “shale gas” was not used because the Denver-Julesburg Basin produces oil and gas from unconventional geologic formations that are not shales.

4. Summarizing perspectives in binary terms risks oversimplification, but this framework is operationalized here for the sake of clarity and is supported by the data. Public opinion on UNOG extraction defies binary categorization, but when it comes to the specific subject of drilling in residential areas, stakeholders generally group in clear support or opposition.

5. Local control made up a second central aspect of drilling proponents' proposals, but a full engagement with this topic is beyond the scope of this analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences at the University of Colorado-Boulder.