The Uncertainty of Community Financial Incentives for ‘Fracking’: Pursuing Ramifications for Environmental Justice

This chapter aims to do two things. Firstly, whilst there is a recognition that green criminological research is important, there is a corresponding realization that there is a lack of green criminological research that focuses specifically on energy crime (and energy harm). This is despite an appreciation that many energy extraction processes create environmental harm and ecological destruction. In order to contribute to green criminological literature on energy crime, this chapter explores the emergence of unconventional hydraulic fracturing (UHF) in the United Kingdom (UK) with a concurrent discussion of the global academic literature that has identified both social and environmental harm as a result of such technology overseas. Secondly, there is an analysis of the community financial incentives (CFI’s) that are provided to “communities” in respect of the right to use underlying geology for the purposes of UHF and the pursuing ramifications that such payments may have for environmental justice in the communities that host fracking. The chapter draws on empirical research (interviews) conducted with key-informants. As a result, the two central purposes of this chapter are:
1. To underline the lack of research on energy crimes (and energy harms) within green criminological discourse despite the global nature of ensuing environmental harm from such activities; and
2. To highlight the ramifications that CFI’s have for environmental justice in the communities that host UHF in the UK.