Eliciting public concerns about an emerging energy technology: The case of unconventional shale gas development in the United States

Israel, Andrei L.; Wong‐Parodi, Gabrielle; Webler, Thomas; Stern, Paul C.

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2015.05.002

Cited by 59 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The foregoing research reveals the complex and nuanced ways in which perspectives on this issue are negotiated and emerge -supported by substantial research on public perceptions of UGD (e.g., Anderson and Theodori 2009;Boudet et al 2014;Braiser et al 2013;Clarke et al 2015;Evensen et al 2014b;Evensen 2015a;Evensen and Stedman 2016;Israel et al 2015;Malin 2014;Morrone et al 2015;Perry 2012b;Sangaramoorthy et al 2016;Schafft and Biddle 2015;Stedman et al 2012;Stedman et al 2016;Willow 2014; see Thomas et al 2017 for a review). These findings often contrast with institutional framings of UGD, which can paint public perceptions as misinformed and/or uninformed (Williams et al 2015).…”

Section: Shale Gas Development Public Perceptions and Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘If they only knew what I know’: Attitude change from education about ‘fracking’

Evensen

2017

Environmental Practice

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Section: Shale Gas Development Public Perceptions and Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘If they only knew what I know’: Attitude change from education about ‘fracking’

Evensen

2017

Environmental Practice

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“…Objects of analysis include effects on employment, income or the property market but also social dynamics [20,22,26,49,53,66,81,114,115,152], local risks, risk perception and risk governance [63,64,90,131,135] or questions of energy justice [41,105]. 3 With regard to discipline, studies in these areas are biased toward sociological approaches and ethnography but also law.…”

Section: Reviewing the Literature On Shale Gasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing the above ground factors in shale gas: Toward a research agenda on regulatory governance

Goldthau¹

2016

Energy Research & Social Science

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“…The shale gas boom has also presented new technical, social, and political challenges [19]. Despite public concern regarding the distributive and procedural equity of natural gas development [20][21][22][23][24], the literature on the social equity implications of natural gas systems is sparse.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the social equity state of an energy system: environmental and labor market equity of the shale gas boom in Appalachia

Mayfield

Cohon

Muller

et al. 2019

Environ. Res. Lett.

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A fundamental societal concern in energy system transitions is the distribution of benefits and costs across populations. A recent transition, the US shale gas boom, has dramatically altered the domestic energy outlook and global markets; however, the social equity implications have not been meaningfully assessed and accounted for in public and private decision making. In this study, we develop and demonstrate a systematic approach to quantify the multi-dimensional equity state of an energy system, with a focus on the shale gas boom in the Appalachian basin. We tailor variants of standard equity metrics as well as develop new empirical and analytical methods and metrics to assess spatial, temporal, income, and racial equity as it relates to air quality, climate change, and labor market impacts across the natural gas supply chain. We find moderate to high spatial inequities with respect to the distribution of production (Gini coefficient (η)=0.93), consumption for electric power generation (η=0.68), commercial, industrial, and residential end use (η=0.72), job creation (η=0.72), and air pollution-related deaths (η=0.77), which are largely driven by geographicallyfixed natural gas abundance and demand. Air quality impacts are also regressive, such that mortality risk induced by natural gas activity generally increases as income decreases; for example, mortality risk (m) (in units of premature mortality per 100 000 people) for the lowest income class (<$15 000; m=0.22 in 2016) is higher (18%-31%) than for the highest income class (>$150 000; m=0.27 in 2016). These risks are higher for white (m=0.30 in 2016) than non-white (m=0.16 in 2016) populations, which is largely a result of the demographics of rural communities within the vicinity of natural gas development. With respect to local labor market impacts within producing counties, we find marginal declines in income inequality (2.8%±1.0%) and poverty rates (9.9%±1.7%) during the boom, although household income increases for the wealthiest and decreases for the poorest. At a systems-level, there is an implied air quality-employment tradeoff of 3 (<1 to 7) job-years created per life-year lost; this tradeoff varies spatially (−1100 to 4400 life-years lost minus job-years created), wherein the job benefit outweighs the air quality costs in most producing counties whereas in all other counties the reverse is true. We also observe temporal inequities, with air quality and employment impacts following the boom-and-bust cycle, while climate impacts are largely borne by future generations. Cross-impact elasticities (ε), which measure the sensitivity between different types of impacts, reveal that employment increases are sensitive to and coupled with increases in air and climate impacts (ε=1.1 and ε=1.3, respectively). The metrics applied here facilitate the evaluation and design of countervailing policies and systems that explicitly account for social inequities mediated through energy infrastructure, supply, and demand. For example, in future en...

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Eliciting public concerns about an emerging energy technology: The case of unconventional shale gas development in the United States

Cited by 59 publications

References 24 publications

‘If they only knew what I know’: Attitude change from education about ‘fracking’

‘If they only knew what I know’: Attitude change from education about ‘fracking’

Conceptualizing the above ground factors in shale gas: Toward a research agenda on regulatory governance

Quantifying the social equity state of an energy system: environmental and labor market equity of the shale gas boom in Appalachia

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