Scholars are asking what accounts for support or resistance to the expansion of fracking in rural America. Much of the research has found that local support for fracking often outweighs resistance, contrary to what national media coverage suggests. When scholars and journalists have explained rural support for fossil fuels, they have typically argued that it stems from political ideology, economic dependence, or local naiveté about the damaging impacts. This paper uses qualitative research from the Bakken region to address the question of local support.
The paper draws on fourteen months that I spent doing fieldwork in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming. I observed and questioned local farmers and ranchers where oil infrastructure was being developed as well as landmen who represented the oil industry there. I interviewed and observed over a hundred farmers, ranchers and landmen. I also observed meetings of owners’ and landmen’s associations and interviewed those organizations’ leaders. Finally, I participated in social gatherings, professional conferences, and trainings.
From this evidence, I argue that in this region, cultural affinities between agriculture and oil can also help explain local support for oil and gas. In particular, I show that oil and agriculture share lifestyles built around masculine, industrialized forms of production from the land, and lead farmers and ranchers of the Northern Plains to accept oil production’s promise and risks. Agricultural and oil production in the Plains have a lot in common: Practitioners of both take pride in independence and their ability to produce things people need, like food and fuel. Both anticipate selling these goods on global markets. Both know that their production processes involve significant financial risks because of those markets and nature (weather and geography). Momentous physical risks stem from the industrial and experimental character of production - oil and agriculture are some of the deadliest professions. Environmental damage from oil’s spills, earthquakes, air and groundwater contamination are hardly surprising to farmers and ranchers used to pollution from pesticides and herbicides.
