Public Deliberation of Upstream Hydraulic Fracturing in the US

Through a series of public deliberation workshops, this research explores emergent public perceptions of shale oil and gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’). Moving beyond survey studies that have broadly... [ view full abstract ]

Through a series of public deliberation workshops, this research explores emergent public perceptions of shale oil and gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’). Moving beyond survey studies that have broadly gauged awareness of and attitudes toward ‘fracking’ in different parts of the US and elsewhere, this project studies perceptions of fracking in places where it is yet to be implemented at scale using comparative qualitative data. This research looks at the range of public values that underlie engagement with technological development and issues of energy and society – including safety, reliability, nature protection, governance, quality of life and fairness. Although ‘fracking’ has become high-profile (through media amplification and within political debates on energy policy), much of the research into the scope and scale of its impacts is still being done. The deliberation workshop format allowed people from different age, class, educational, occupational, ethnicity and gender positions to participate in deliberative discussions on projected risks and benefits of ‘fracking’. We held a total of four, day-long workshops in the US and UK, focusing on deliberative judgments and involving a variety of tasks to engage participants. The findings presented here are based on two workshops conducted in the US: in California, where deep shale fracking (as found across much of the US) is currently being developed. This research forms part of a collaborative US-UK comparative project which (i) identifies degrees of public acceptability and resistance, exploring trade-offs, conditions and concerns, and (ii) compares perceptions across countries with different histories of fossil fuel extraction and ‘fracking’ operations.


part of Symposium: PERCEPTION AND GOVERNANCE OF FRACKING RISKS: US AND EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVES, convened by Pidgeon and Harthorn