Contested Fracking Environments: What's the Stories?

Within the UK several areas have the potential to produce shale gas by fracking but the environments of proposed shale gas development within the UK are strongly contested. .On the one hand, there are political and corporate claims that the commercial development of shale gas could play an important role in the UK’s future energy mix, reduce dependency on foreign sources of energy and stimulate investment in new jobs and businesses. On the other hand, many groups have been campaigning to oppose shale gas development, believing it to have potentially damaging environmental and human consequences. With these two sets of contrasting perspectives on shale gas development by fracking in mind, the aims of this paper are twofold. Firstly, to explore how contrasting positions on fracking are reflected in the stories posted on the Internet by Cuadrilla Resources, one of the principal shale gas companies in the UK, and Frack Off, a grass roots direct action campaign which aims to stop the extraction of shale gas resources. Secondly, to offer some reflections on the role of storytelling in current fracking controversies and, in so doing, to explore some of the wider issues in the debates and conflicts about shale gas development by fracking.