The gas industry has not done itself any favors by downplaying the risks associated with fracking, something the industry is apparently just realizing. Labeling affected citizens โfracktivistsโ or โuneducatedโ in order to delegitimize their complaints has only emphasized the industryโs callousness and inability to respond to real fears in a meaningful way. People trust the industry less than ever before, and with increased drilling across the globe, discontent is becoming even moreย widespread.
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Now, after more than a decade of reckless drilling mishaps and a strengthening anti-fracking movement, the industry is willing to admit theyโve lost the public perception battle. From the outside this looks like a perfect opportunity for the industry to become more transparent and accountable. Instead this admission has only strengthened the industryโs resolve to up the communications ante.ย
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The industryโs posture throughout the shale gas boom and the inglorious rise of fracking has been one of arrogance. The people and the economy need unconventional gas, they say, and they have held fast to this mantra, even in situations of environmental contamination and community harm. ย In the face of protest, the industry has cited gas-funded statistics to remind the people just how much our economic stability, employment rates, environment and energy security hang upon the projected success of unconventional gas exploration.ย
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We have a better future in store, says the industry, and fracked gas is the lynchpin. The risks associated with drilling can only be understood as the unintended but necessary costs of a secure-energy future. The victims in this equation are silenced, bought out and called patriots.ย
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But the inherently dangerous drilling procedures associated with unconventional gas have become too difficult to downplay and the increasingly vocal anti-frack movement is getting better at organizing, information sharing and media communications strategies. And that is exactly where the gas industry is looking to make improvements.
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At an oil and gas strategy conference culminating yesterday in Denver, Colorado, keynote speaker and president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association Tisha Conoly-Schuller described the industryโs opposition as โevolvedโ and โmainstream.โ
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โThe public is skeptical of anything we say,โ she cautions, adding โthe favorable perception of the oil and gas industry polls at seven percent โ thatโs lower than Congress. The public does not believe us. We need someone else delivering our message for us.โ
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Naturalgaswatch.org, the โOfficial Bloggerโ of the conference called โEnhancing Shale Oil & Gas Development Strategies,โ recounts Conoly-Schullerโs list of recommendations to the industry representatives at the conference:
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ย – identifying other messengers to carry positive messages about oil and gas to a skeptical public; university professors, she said, polled the highest and are well positioned in that regard.ยย – broadening the sources of information for executives โ โWe have sources we are comfortable with,โ she said, โand they reinforce our views. We need to go beyond that, even if it makes our blood boil, so we can learn the language used by our opposition and learn what they think. These nuts make up about 90 percent of our population, so we canโt really call them nuts any more. Theyโre the mainstream.โยย – respecting industry critics โ โHistorically, the industry has been dismissive of its critics,โ she said. โWe have to understand that they are well-intentioned and believe in what they are doing.โยย – recognize the emotional nature of the discourse โ โItโs ineffective to respond to emotion with science. We need empathy and we have to recognize that emotional is not irrational.โยreframe the issue of hydraulic fracturing in economic terms โ โWe need to talk about how energy is the building block of our economy.โยย – engage in dialogue about hydraulic fracturing more broadly โ โEngage with people with people not necessarily to change their minds, but to learn what they know and think. That will inform what works.โยย – reposition the industry to appeal more broadly to young people โ โThe issue is serious, but we shouldnโt take ourselves so seriously. We need to become much more clever. Our industry is going to have to become hipper.โย
It will not be lost on critics of the gas industry that no suggestions are made for the kind of reform asked for by those left in frackingโs wake. The conferenceโs main topic, strategic communications, points to a repeat of the same faulty strategies that got the industry into this mess in the first place: little substantive changes to safety and performance, and far more aggressive public relations campaigns. ย
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Peter Sandman, who is hosting a similar โcommunicationsโ conference for Canadian gas companies says the industry has been miserable in its attempts to improve risk communications. The general public, he says, view an improvement as โacknowledging prior misbehaviors and current problems, sharing control, becoming more accountable to critics, etc.โ But for the mistaken industry โit means doing a better job of explaining the industryโs strengths and rebutting opponentsโ claims.โ
The tensions splitting supporters and opponents of fracking have never been more clear, yet, instead of focusing the time and resources necessary to respond to these concerns over human and environmental health, the industry is gearing up for a public relations battle to put the tar sands committee to shame. But that battle, we already know, has been lost.
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So, just what is the gas industry thinking?
