Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Energy Crime, Harm, and Problematic State Response in Colorado: A Case of the Fox Guarding the Hen House?

  • Published:
Critical Criminology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Crime related to energy extraction is an emerging area of interest among green and critical criminologists. This paper contributes to that developing work by examining the political economy of harm and crime associated with the oil and natural gas industry in rural Colorado. Specifically, we examine problematic state regulatory response to citizens’ complaints regarding a range of harms caused by private industry (e.g., water pollution, adverse human health consequences, and domestic livestock death). In this paper, we draw on content analysis of formal complaints filed by citizens to the state, ethnographic work, and intensive interviews with citizens seeking relief from problematic or abusive industry practices. Our analysis illuminates how the state documents these practices, how citizens experience them, and how the state dilutes and deflects the externalities of energy extraction to produce additional harm.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. A split estate is when property ownership is divided between the surface owner and those who own the rights to minerals/natural gas located beneath the surface (Bryner 2003 and Davis 2012).

  2. Similar to Chiricos we conceptualize ideology using a two part understanding whereby ideology: (1) is a form of partisan discourse that pursues interests and (2) distorts reality as a means to pursue/achieve those interests.

  3. This participant would not consent to a recorded interview because he was in business with the oil and gas industry and feared backlash.

  4. Flaring involves the burning off of natural gas during the extraction process.

References

  • Atlas, M. (2001). Rush to judgment: An empirical analysis of environmental equity in U.S. environmental protection agency enforcement actions. Law and Society Review, 35, 633–682.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonds, E. (2007). Environmental review as battleground corporate power, government collusion, and citizen opposition to a tire-burning power plant in rural Minnesota, USA. Organization & Environment, 20(2), 157–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryner, G. (2003). Coalbed methane: The costs and benefits of an emerging energy source. Natural Resources Journal, 43(2), 519–560.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carrington, K., Hogg, R., & McIntosh, A. (2011). The resource boom’s underbelly: Criminological impacts of mining development. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 44(3), 335–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charmaz, K. (2009). Qualitative interviewing and grounded theory analysis. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiricos, T. (1996). Moral panics as ideology: Drugs, violence, race, and punishment in America. In M. Lynch & E. B. Patterson (Eds.), Justice with prejudice: Race and criminal justice in America (pp. 19–48). Guilderland, NY: Harrow and Heston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colorado. 50 States.com. http://www.50states.com/colorado.htm. Accessed 10 May 2014.

  • Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). (2014). Colorado weekly and monthly oil and gas statistics. http://cogcc.state.co.us/Library/Statistics/CoWklyMnthlyOGStats.pdf Accessed 16 May 2014.

  • Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). (n.d.). Typical questions from the public about oil and gas development in Colorado. http://oil-gas.state.co.us/general/typquest.html. Accessed 19 May 2014.

  • Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCCa). (n.d.) Rules of practice and procedure. https://cogcc.state.co.us/RR_Asps/500Series.pdf Accessed 20 May 2014.

  • Davis, C. (2012). The politics of fracking: Regulating natureal gas drilling practices in Colorado and Texas. Review of Policy Research, 29(2), 177–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, R. M., Fritz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Finley, B. (2014). Colorado adopts tougher air rules for oil, gas industry. The Denver post. 23 Feb 2014. http://www.denverpost.com/environment/ci_25213661/colorado-adopts-tougher-air-rules-oil-gas-industry. Accessed 30 May 2014.

  • Gould, K. A., Pellow, D. N., & Schnaiberg, A. (2004). Interrogating the treadmill of production. Everything you wanted to know about the treadmill but were afraid to ask. Organization & Environment, 17(3), 296–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hooks, G., & Smith, C. L. (2004). The treadmill of destruction: National sacrifice areas and Native Americans. American Sociological Review, 69(4), 558–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacquet, J.B. (2014). Review of risks to communities from shale energy development. Environmental Science and Technology. doi:10.1021/es404647x.

  • Ladd, A. E. (2013). Stakeholder perceptions of socioenvironmental impacts from unconventional natural gas development and hydraulic fracturing in the Haynesville Shale. Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 28(2), 56–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larrain, J. (1983). Marxism and ideology. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press.

  • Long, M. A., Stretesky, P. B., Lynch, M. J., & Fenwick, E. (2012). Crime in the coal industry: Implications for green criminology and treadmill of production. Organization & Environment, 25(3), 328–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M. (1990). The greening of criminology: A perspective for the 1990s. The Critical Criminologist 2(3), 3–4, 11–12.

  • Lynch, M., Long, M., Barrett, K., & Stretesky, P. (2013). Why green criminology and political economy matter in the analysis of global ecological harms. British Journal of Criminology, 53, 997–1016.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maddaford, Brooke. (2013). Inspections of oil and gas development. Colorado Legislation Staff Council Issue Brief, 13-09. 1-7. http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1251915389800&ssbinary=true. Accessed 15 May 2014.

  • Malin, S. (2014). There’s no real choice but to sign: Neoliberalization and normalization of hydraulic fracturing on Pennsylvania farmland. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 4(1), 17–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malloy, T. (2013). Colorado gov has early lead in reelect bid, press release. Quinnipiac University Poll. http://www.quinnipiac.edu/images/polling/co/co11192013_h28ca2.pdf. Accessed 17 May 2014.

  • Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, S. L. (2012). Development, land use, and collective trauma: The Marcellus Shale gas boom in rural Pennsylvania. Culture, Agriculture, Food, and Environment, 34(1), 81–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quinney, R. (1970). The social reality of crime. Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schnaiberg, A. (1980). The environment: From surplus to scarcity. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, D. (2000). Corporate environmental crimes and social inequality: New directions for environmental justice research. American Behavioral Scientist, 43, 633–645.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Situ, Y., & Emmons, D. (2000). Environmental crime: The criminal justice system’s role in protecting the environment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stretesky, P., & Hogan, M. J. (1998). Environmental justice: An analysis of superfund sites in Florida. Social Problems, 45, 268–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stretesky, P. B., Long, M. A., & Lynch, M. J. (2013). Does environmental enforcement slow the treadmill of production? The relationship between large monetary penalties, ecological disorganization and toxic releases within offending corporations. Journal of Crime and Justice, 36(2), 233–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Theodori, G. L. (2013). Perception of the natural gas industry and engagement in individual civic actions. Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 28(2), 122–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • US Census Bureau. American fact finder. http://factfinder2.census.gov/. Accessed 30 May 2014.

  • US Energy Information Administration. (2013). Colorado state profile and energy estimates. http://www.eia.gov/state/seds/sep_prod/pdf/P5.pdf Accessed 16 May 2014.

  • White, R. (2008). Crimes against nature: Environmental criminology and ecological justice. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, R. (2013a). Resource extraction leaves something behind: Environmental justice and mining. International Journal for Crime and Justice, 2(1), 50–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, R. (2013b). Crimes against nature: Environmental criminology and ecological justice. London: Routledge.

  • Williams, C. (1996). Environmental victims. Social Justice, 23, 16–40.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Center for the Study of Crime and Justice, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Tara Opsal & Tara O’Connor Shelley

Authors
  1. Tara Opsal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tara O’Connor Shelley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tara Opsal.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Opsal, T., O’Connor Shelley, T. Energy Crime, Harm, and Problematic State Response in Colorado: A Case of the Fox Guarding the Hen House?. Crit Crim 22, 561–577 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-014-9255-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-014-9255-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation