Risk and benefits in a fracking boom: Evidence from Colorado

Unconventional oil and gas technology such as hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) has created a boom in production in the United States. In this paper we add to the growing literature on public perceptions of risk and benefits related to fracking using data from Colorado. We find that trust in the oil and gas industry is powerful predictor of a range of risk and benefit perceptions while other ostensibly important variables-such as the extent of local drilling or the perceived economic significance of the oil and gas industry-have little role in risk and benefit perceptions. The effect of trust is robust across several different types of risk and benefits perceptions and survives the inclusion of an array of control variables. Moving forward, we suggest researchers work to understand the factors which create public trust in the oil and gas industry.