Fracking and the Neoliberalization of the Hydro‐Social Cycle in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale

Abstract

Abstract:Oil and gas firms are utilizing a controversial drilling technique, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to access unconventional natural gas reserves in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale. The potential impacts of fracking are creating sharp tensions between stakeholders over the costs and benefits of drilling within their communities. In particular, much contention has emerged over water resources as the process both uses and degrades billions of gallons of water. This paper takes a critical look at the way multi‐scale neoliberal discourses obfuscate comprehensive understandings of fracking's effect on water resources. We turn to the neoliberal environments literature as a way to situate the economic logic that normalizes the impacts of fracking on resources, particularly in the absence of an effective regulatory framework. We argue that neoliberal pro‐fracking arguments are (re)defining the relationship among people, the environment, and institutions, which in turn normalizes the impacts on communities and the resources on which they depend.