Social license to operate during Wyoming's coalbed methane boom: Implications of private participation

Abstract

Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) projects have emerged as fundamental, yet often controversial, components of contemporary energy systems. In contrast to the prevailing academic focus on sites of conflict, this paper explores why and how the social license to operate succeeds in UOG settings, or how private landowners accept or accommodate development. This paper applies the concept of social license to operate to landowner-industry relations during an episode of coalbed methane (CBM) development in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming. Conclusions draw on forty semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, including industry personnel, oil and gas attorneys, and surface owners that hosted CBM development. The findings indicate that mutual respect, procedural fairness, and trust were necessary preconditions of social license. These three preconditions created an opening for surface owners to effectively engage in private participation and advocate for their instrumental priorities. However, the key priority of surface owners to retain energy infrastructure, instead of demanding reclamation, has contributed to the existing U.S. land-use phenomenon of energy sprawl. Therefore, reclamation policy should aim to secure positive personal outcomes for private surface owners while mitigating against the cumulative environmental impacts of energy production.