Depressed democracy, environmental injustice: Exploring the negative mental health implications of unconventional oil and gas production in the United States

Highlights

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  U.S. unconventional oil and gas production has proliferated, moving into neighborhoods.

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  Institutional contexts and procedural equity matter for mental health.

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  Interviewees experienced inaccessible information as significant institutional barrier.

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  Interviewees experienced powerlessness to decide how, when, & where production takes place.

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  These 2 institutional barriers structure procedural inequity, amplify negative mental health impacts.

Abstract

Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) production has rapidly expanded, making the U.S. the top producer of hydrocarbons. The industrial process now pushes against neighborhoods, schools, and people’s daily lives. I analyze extensive mixed methods data collected over three years in Colorado – including 75 in-depth interviews and additional participant observation – to show how living amid industrial UOG production generates chronic stress and negative mental health outcomes, such as self-reported depression. I show how UOG production has become a neighborhood industrial activity that, in turn, acts as a chronic environmental stressor. I examine two key drivers of chronic stress – uncertainty and powerlessness – and show how these mechanisms relate to state-level institutional processes that generate patterned procedural inequities. This includes inadequate access to transparent environmental and public health information about UOG production’s potential risks and limited public participation in decisions about production, with negative implications for mental health.