Contentious baselining: The politics of “pre-drilling” environmental measures in shale gas territory

Abstract

Ignorance about baseline conditions can be advantageous to companies that are suspected of causing environmental harm, because it allows them to claim that perhaps the degradation was a pre-existing problem. In the case of Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction in Pennsylvania (USA), gas well operators have created strategic ignorance about and through baselines in at least two ways: (1) drawing attention to weaknesses in the documentation of past environmental states and (2) controlling access to data that was collected in the past. This case further reveals that ordinary individuals and environmental organizations have taken an active interest in producing environmental baselines, separate from any formal regulatory process that might call for them. However, public participation in baselining does not occur on a level playing field, and it is a weak strategy for holding polluters accountable.