On Shaky Ground: Power,Spatial Inequality and the Politics of Energy Development

• In Event: 147 - Regular Session. Political Sociology 2

Abstract

: Land use laws, regulations, and conventions have been instrumental in the dramatic expansion of natural gas development. The split estate, the severance of mineral rights from surface ownership along with political and legal actions institutionalized asymmetric conditions for access to the resource. This paper focuses on three underutilized concepts to examine the conditions, practices, and consequences of the split estate; spatial inequality, meta-power, and spatial verticality. Spatial inequality, the uneven distribution, access, and control of space, is result of privileging mineral rights over surface ownership. Meta-power, establishing conditional organization and culture of distal and future contexts that shape internal relational power. The underground, as social space, becomes visible as emergent, problematic, and contested. Space now applies to a three dimensional, vertical plane expanded to affected atmosphere, surface land and underground space. Colorado is used as a site to explore the conditions and dynamics of the resource development and split estate. The conclusion offers implications, additional research directions, and suggested links to other related areas.

Authors

• Peter M. Hall, Colorado State University

• Stacia S. Ryder, Colorado State University