ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how civic organizations can work collaboratively with industry and government to manage shale development impacts. Although private property landowners host most of the shale development in the United States, they have limited opportunities to impact governance systems due to the country’s complex property rights regime and its unwieldy regulatory system, which varies from state to state. In North Dakota, in response to the Bakken shale boom, a group of property owners formed a landowner association to exchange information and amplify their voices. They have successfully lobbied for policy changes at the state level, including the creation of a statewide alternative dispute resolution program to address pipeline reclamation problems. This chapter focuses on the benefits of the landowners’ collaborative strategy, such as the ability to help equalize power relations between industry and landowners, but also the risks – including the possibility of being coopted by industry.
