Cotton, M.D. orcid.org/0000-0002-8877-4822 (2017) Fair fracking? Ethics and environmental justice in United Kingdom shale gas policy and planning. Local Environment, 22 (2). pp. 185-202. ISSN 1469-6711
Abstract
The exploitation of shale gas resources is a significant issue of environmental justice. Uneven distributions of risks and social impacts to local site communities must be balanced against the economic benefits to gas users and developers; and unequal decision-making powers must be negotiated between local and central government, communities and fracking site developers. These distributive and procedural elements are addressed in relation to UK policy, planning, regulatory and industry development. I adopt an explicitly normative framework of policy evaluation; addressing a research gap on the ethics of shale gas by operationalising Shrader-Frechette’s Principle of Prima Facie Political Equality (PPFPE). I conclude that UK fracking policy reveals inherent contradictions of environmental justice in relation to the Conservative Government’s localist and planning reform agendas. Early fracking policy protected communities from harm in the wake of seismic risk events, but these were quickly replaced with pro-industry economic stimulation and planning legislation that curtailed community empowerment in fracking decision-making, increased environmental risks to communities, transferred powers from local to central government, and created the conditions of distributive injustices in the management of community benefit provisions. I argue that only by ‘re-localising’ the scale of fracking governance can political equality be ensured and the distributive and procedural environmental injustices be ameliorated.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Shale gas; environmental justice; UK energy policy; Principle of Prima Facie Political Equality |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Urban Studies & Planning (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 05 May 2016 10:14 |
Last Modified: | 30 Jun 2017 22:02 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2016.1186613 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13549839.2016.1186613 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:99312 |