Abstract Scholarship on boom‐busts cycles in resource extraction often assumes that affected resource‐rich communities are at best reactive, at worst helpless, in the face of the large, exogenous shocks this cycle visits upon them. Researchers infrequently examine what communities themselves can do to improve their economic prospects and residents' quality of life amidst booms and busts. In this review paper, we identify and synthesize work scattered across disparate academic and gray literature—in planning, law, community economic development, rural sociology, economics, and political science, among others—to holistically assess what we know about how communities can use local policymaking to manage impacts of booms and busts associated with unconventional oil and gas drilling (UOGD), often called “fracking.” We highlight examples of communities tackling this task using vertical and horizontal governance strategies and distill expert recommendations for how communities can build boom‐bust resiliency generally and in key areas impacted by UOGD.
more »
« less
A review of community impacts of boom-bust cycles in unconventional oil and gas development
Unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) has become the most widespread form of energy production in the United States. The booms and busts associated with UOGD are not unique to the industry, but the impacts to local communities are. As the industry continues to dominate the nation's energy landscape, and marginalized communities are disproportionately exposed to the extraction processes, it is important to understand the full scope of the environmental and social impacts experienced by communities during booms and busts. We review the literature on both the ecological and social boom-bust impacts of UOGD, noting the dearth of research on bust-time impacts. We conclude by calling for greater research on the long-term impacts of busts, in particular, and on understudied aspects of social impacts like those to public services, infrastructure, and social capital.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1658962
- PAR ID:
- 10389989
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The journal of energy research and social sciences
- Volume:
- 2022
- ISSN:
- 2631-2344
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
COVID-19 resulted in health and logistical challenges for many sectors of the American economy, including the trucking industry. This study examined how the pandemic impacted the trucking industry, focused on the pandemic’s impacts on company operations, health, and stress of trucking industry employees. Data were collected from three sources: surveys, focus groups, and social media posts. Individuals at multiple organizational levels of trucking companies (i.e., supervisors, upper-level management, and drivers) completed an online survey and participated in online focus groups. Data from focus groups were coded using a thematic analysis approach. Publicly available social media posts from Twitter were analyzed using a sentiment analysis framework to assess changes in public sentiment about the trucking industry pre- and during-COVID-19. Two themes emerged from the focus groups: (1) trucking company business strategies and adaptations and (2) truck driver experiences and workplace safety. Participants reported supply chain disruptions and new consumer buying trends as having larger industry-wide impacts. Company adaptability emerged due to freight variability, leading organizations to pivot business models and create solutions to reduce operational costs. Companies responded to COVID-19 by accommodating employees’ concerns and implementing safety measures. Truck drivers noted an increase in positive public perception of truck drivers, but job quality factors worsened due to closed amenities and decreased social interaction. Social media sentiment analysis also illustrated an increase in positive public sentiment towards the trucking industry during COVID-19. The pandemic resulted in multi-level economic, health, and social impacts on the trucking industry, which included economic impacts on companies and economic, social and health impacts on employees within the industry levels. Further research can expand on this study to provide an understanding of the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the trucking industry companies within the industry and segments of the trucking industry workforce.more » « less
-
Abstract While there have been efforts to supply off-grid energy in the Amazon, these attempts have focused on low upfront costs and deployment rates. These “get-energy-quick” methods have almost solely adopted diesel generators, ignoring the environmental and social risks associated with the known noise and pollution of combustion engines. Alternatively, it is recommended, herein, to supply off-grid needs with renewable, distributed microgrids comprised of photovoltaics (PV) and in-stream generators (ISG). Utilization of a hybrid combination of renewable generators can provide an energetically, environmentally, and financially feasible alternative to typical electrification methods, depending on available solar irradiation and riverine characteristics, that with community engagement allows for a participatory codesign process that takes into consideration people’s needs. A convergent solution development framework that includes designers—a team of social scientists, engineers, and communication specialists—and communities as well as the local industry is examined here, by which the future negative impacts at the human–machine–environment nexus can be minimized by iterative, continuous interaction between these key actors.more » « less
-
Nations in the Global South have increasingly embraced large hydropower. Hydropower development typically involves the displacement and resettlement of entire communities and has a range of social and ecological impacts. Some communities become the operational center for the dam construction, as well as host new neighborhoods of resettlers. One of the less-studied impacts of dams is the potential loss of social capital both in resettled and host communities. Here, we ask how the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon is associated with social capital in a resettled group and a non-resettled population that, while not experiencing resettlement, nevertheless was impacted by the dam as well. We use measures of cognitive and structural social capital. Results suggest that resettlers have lower structural social capital across two proxy indicators, whereas the host community has lower cognitive social capital. Future research and social impact assessments should pay more attention to how hydropower impacts both kinds of social capital.more » « less
-
Advances in hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”) technologies and horizontal drilling have enabled the extraction of previously unviable unconventional oil and gas resources. However, as global environmental concerns have become more prominent and unconventional oil and gas developments have moved ever closer to residential centers, public scrutiny of the industry and its methods and impacts of extraction have increased. Water impacts feature prominently among the contemporary societal concerns about fracking. These concerns include the large water requirements of the process itself, as well as concerns about the potential pollution of groundwater and the (underground) environment more broadly. Anthropologists have undertaken qualitative field research on unconventional gas developments in a variety of settings, largely among local communities in regions of extraction. The perspectives employed by anthropologists are commonly drawn from the broader social science literature, including the anthropology of water and natural resources, science and technology studies, studies of social movements, and studies which examine the energy‐society nexus. Based on the shortcomings of the published anthropological accounts, interdisciplinary research collaboration with hydrologists, engineers and economists, as well as a more fulsome engagement with the variety of hopes, fears and dreams of fracking and unconventional gas, is recommended.WIREs Water2018, 5:e1272. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1272 This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of WaterScience of Water > Water QualityHuman Water > Methodsmore » « less
An official website of the United States government

