Place and avoiding the race to the bottom of the fractured well

Pearson, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0164-9499 (2024) Place and avoiding the race to the bottom of the fractured well. Journal of Place Management and Development, 17 (2). pp. 186-203. ISSN 1753-8335

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Abstract

Purpose: This paper considers the potential implications of the layering of regulation in relation to hydraulic fracturing (fracking) at the borders between the nations of the United Kingdom. Design/methodology/approach: The paper utilizes a qualitative research method grounded in particular in legal geography to examine the existing approaches to regulating hydraulic fracturing to identify the places and their features that are constructed as a result of their intersection at the borders of the nations comprising the United Kingdom. Findings: The current regulatory framework concerning hydraulic fracturing risks restricting the places in which the practice can occur in such a manner as to potentially cause greater environmental harm should the process be utilised. The regulations governing the process are not aligned in relation to the surface and subsurface aspects of the process to enable their management, once operational, as a singular constructed place of extraction. Strong regulation at the surface can have the effect of influencing placement of the site only in relation to the place at which the resource sought reaches the surface, whilst having little to no impact on the environmental harms which will result at the subsurface or relative to other potential surface site positions, and potentially even increasing them. Originality: Whilst the potential for cross internal border extraction of gas within the United Kingdom via hydraulic fracturing and the regulatory consequences of this has been highlighted in academic literature, this paper examines the implications of regulation for the least environmentally harmful placement of the process. Research limitations/implications The paper is limited by uncertainty as to the future use of hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas within the United Kingdom. The issues raised within it would also be applicable to other extractive industries where a surface site might be placed within a radius of the subsurface point of extraction, rather than having to be located at a fixed point relative to that in the subsurface. The paper therefore raises concerns which might be explored more generally in relation to the regulation of place of resource extraction, particularly at legal borders between jurisdictions and the impact of regulation which does not account for the misalignment of regulation of spaces above and below the surface which form a single place at which extraction occurs. Social implications: The paper considers the potential impacts of misaligned positions held by nations of the United Kingdom in relation to environmentally harmful practices undertaken by extractive industries which are highlighted by analysis of the extant regulatory framework for hydraulic fracturing.