“Shale gas development will bring local economic benefits”. An analysis of central Appalachian landowners' lived experience and situated knowledge of extractivism

Abstract

Extractivism is notorious for causing environmental destruction, resulting in worsened living conditions for those residing near sites of, among other processes, mining, logging, and hydraulic fracturing. Yet, companies can operate in certain areas because they mobilize narratives, often supported by governments and local authorities, asserting that extraction will bring local economic benefits in the forms of employment, improved general living standards, and economic compensation. In this article, we examine this core argument, focusing on shale gas development that has taken place since the mid-2000s in central Appalachia. We ground our analysis in original material gathered between 2020 and 2022 through 55 interviews with land and mineral owners. Extractivism is a capitalistic complex that operates on a systemic level with similar structures independently of the context where it is taking place. In this article, we zoom in on its operations and consequences at a micro level. We show how the logic of critical infrastructures is enacted by energy companies through compensation and experienced by residents through impacts on livelihood. While this qualitative analysis does not quantify local economic gains or losses, there is a preponderance of evidence showing that land and mineral owners have received limited and discontinuous compensation often compounded with the loss of usable land or forest. We argue that the extraction of raw fossil materials not only contributes to environmental destruction and climate change but is fundamentally grounded in unequal power relations that heighten social vulnerability and potentially destroy livelihoods.