The French ban on hydraulic fracturing and the attempts to reverse it: Social mobilization, professional forums, and coalition strategies

Chailleux, Sébastien;Moyson, Stéphane
(2016) Policy debates on hydraulic fracturing: Comparing coalition politics in North America and Europe — ISBN: [978-1-137-59574-4], p. 115-145, published

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In France, the Minister of Environment issued three first licenses for the exploration of shale gas with hydraulic fracturing in March 2010. Through the lenses of the advocacy coalition framework, this chapter looks at the effect of social mobilization and coalition strategies on the evolution of policy decisions related to hydraulic fracturing in France. The design of professional forums is also examined. The large-scale diffusion of Gasland—a documentary demonstrating the negative consequences of hydraulic fracturing—as well as an efficient strategy of social and political mobilization allowed a coalition of anti-fracturing policy actors to get a ban on this extraction technique in July 2011. However, the ban discredited the entire unconventional hydrocarbon industry, which galvanized a coalition of pro-exploration policy actors. Since 2011, various politico-administrative committees (or “professional forums”) were created to debate on the exploitation of shale hydrocarbons. The design of those committees and the strategic participation of pro-exploration actors have not reversed the ban. Nevertheless, they led to incremental changes which should facilitate hydrocarbon exploration in the future.
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Chailleux, S., & Moyson, S. (2016). The French ban on hydraulic fracturing and the attempts to reverse it: Social mobilization, professional forums, and coalition strategies. In Weible, C.; Heikkila, T.; Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (ed.), Policy debates on hydraulic fracturing: Comparing coalition politics in North America and Europe (p. p. 115-145). Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59574-4