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Use of Fracking Information Disclosure Policies to Reduce Uncertainty in Risk‐Based Decisions
Author(s) -
Lonnquist Sean,
Gallagher Deborah
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/ropr.12423
Subject(s) - transparency (behavior) , context (archaeology) , psychological intervention , boom , business , hydraulic fracturing , scholarship , public relations , environmental planning , political science , medicine , law , engineering , geography , archaeology , psychiatry , environmental engineering , petroleum engineering
The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) boom has outpaced both our understanding of its potential impacts on human health and the environment, as well as the legal and regulatory frameworks in place to govern it. We conducted interviews in Pennsylvania with individuals living in communities affected by fracking to examine how residents perceive the laws and regulations that are in place to protect them from its risks. We found that residents felt that they lacked access to sufficiently comprehensive and comprehensible information about the potential risks that fracking poses. We then drew from scholarship on the use of information disclosure as a regulatory tool to discuss the need for increased information transparency in the fracking context, and proposed several policy interventions that could ease the information asymmetry experienced by residents in these communities.