The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Martina A Caretta 2022

Martina Angela Caretta

Senior lecturer

Martina A Caretta 2022

Beyond environmental harm : Industry claims, lived experiences, and the impacts of gas extraction

Author

  • Martina Angela Caretta
  • Melissa Haeffner
  • Ryan Emanuel
  • Racheal Hood
  • Julia Seydel

Summary, in English

The peer-reviewed literature presents overwhelming evidence that fossil fuel based energy infrastructure projects are responsible for lower residential property values, environmental destruction and pollution that decrease residents' quality of life. These projects also challenge local people's sense of identity and even the threat of such a project can make residents question their sense of place. As evidence, we first present a bibliographic analysis of the environmental impact statements for the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia and the Jordan Cove Energy Project in Oregon. We find that their approval processes relies on non-peer-reviewed, industry-funded claims that pipelines will bring economic benefit and will have no effect on property values. Second, through original interview data gathered between 2019 and 2021 in West Virginia and in 2021 in Oregon, we engage with the concepts of sense of identity and sense of place to demonstrate that regardless of the local context, fossil fuel based energy infrastructure projects cause more than environmental damage; they trigger emotional reactions in residents that see or fear seeing their everyday lives upended. Taken together, this Perspective contributes to the emerging field of emotional energy geography to show how the plans and implementation of oil and gas pipelines become crucial turning points in residents' lives.

Department/s

  • Department of Human Geography
  • LU Profile Area: Human rights

Publishing year

2024-09

Language

English

Publication/Series

Energy Research and Social Science

Volume

115

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Human Geography

Keywords

  • Emotional energy geography
  • Gas extraction
  • Identity
  • Oregon
  • Sense of place
  • West Virginia

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2214-6296