Voices Not Heard: Natural Gas Development, Public Discourse, and Power in Wayne County, Pennsylvania

Abstract: As members of the urban and suburban population continue to migrate to rural areas in search of a beautiful landscape and quiet way of life, conflict over the meaning of and ownership over the landscape emerges. New and previously established populations tend to have dramatically different conceptions of landscape and environment, leading to struggles in the rural economy and local environmental policy. This research focuses on Wayne County, Pennsylvania and uses a current and polarizing issue, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, to illuminate these tensions. The prevailing rhetoric put forth primarily by those who have moved to the area from urban centers and those who come to the area for recreation has dominated the debate due to abundant financial resources and access to national and local media. This research was conducted in an effort to elevate an alternative rhetoric absent from the political discourse surrounding this issue. I conducted in-depth interviews with predominantly longtime residents who live and work on the landscape in order to understand the meaning they ascribe to environmental protection, the extraction of natural gas on the landscape, and the conflicts with new or part-time residents the issue has revealed. The interviews were supplemented with various media sources. Overall, I argue that the perspective of those who have not been heard is informed, nuanced, and must be acknowledged in order to accurately meet the needs of the area and allow for a more democratic and equitable discourse.