Social Equity and “Fracking”: Local Awareness and Responses

Social equity is an important normative construct in public administration. However, its operationalization is vague and it is empirically underutilized. This article combines political economy, social equity, and environmental justice literatures to explore the contentious issue of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (commonly called “fracking”). Through interviews with local officials, we show that local officials are aware of equity issues, many take action to reduce inequities related to gas drilling, and equity is often at odds with private property rights. Finally, equity issues are more likely to be associated with inequitable distribution of costs and benefits than traditional distributional social equity.