Environmental controversies and extreme energy production in Vaca Muerta: notes for debate

This article intends to reflect on the extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons in the Vaca Muerta megaproject, which mainly covers the provinces of Neuquen, Rio Negro and Mendoza, in a societal stage in which extreme energy is produced. This process involves different levels of government, and allows us to notice a set of resistance and criticism of social actors in relation to the dynamics and the effects it has on the territory and the environment. The diverse positions that the actors adopt, in a network of asymmetric power relations, imply the generation of controversies in relation to the impacts of this megaproject on the natural resources and the living conditions of the sectors that inhabit the territory. In this direction, some concerns will be worked on in this text: How do the actors promoting the activity visualize the environmental effects of extreme energy production? How do these groups problematicize those groups critical to the advance of the production of unconventional hydrocarbons? How are controversies around the fracking technique redefined and updated, and regarding the formation and megaproject of Vaca Muerta? The orientation that has guided this study is of a socio-political nature, and qualitative research techniques have been privileged to construct the data and arguments presented in the brief. The article will contribute to the systematization and intellection of controversies, consensus, dissent, tensions and conflicts that are recorded around Vaca Muerta.