Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 116
ISBN-13:
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State Enforcement of Shale Gas Development Regulations, Including Hydraulic Fracturing
Author: Hannah Jacobs Wiseman
Publisher:
Published: 2015
Total Pages: 33
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe United States is in the midst of a boom in natural gas and oil production, much of which has occurred in shale formations around the country. As shale development has expanded -- largely as a result of new horizontal drilling and “slickwater” hydraulic fracturing (fracking, fracing, or hydofracking) techniques -- questions have arisen regarding the environmental risks of drilling and fracturing in shales and how laws, policies, and regulations address these risks. To understand whether and how regulation addresses risks, one must know both the content of regulations and how they are applied through inspections of well sites, notations of violations, and/or enforcement. An accompanying paper by this author, entitled “Regulation of Shale Gas Development, Including Hydraulic Fracturing” addresses the content of federal, regional, state, and local regulations that apply to shale gas development; this paper explores, in a preliminary fashion, how these regulations are applied. It briefly surveys complaints about shale gas and tight sands development (both of which typically require fracturing) lodged by citizens with state agencies, states' notation of environmental violations at shale gas and tight sands wells both in response to these complaints and as a result of independently-instigated site visits or self-reported violations, and states' capacity to inspect sites and enforce violations noted. The objective of this “on-the-ground” review of shale gas development regulatory activities is to offer a preliminary picture of the environmental effects of shale gas development and how states address them through citations of violations and/or initiation of enforcement action. Regulations have little effect if they are rarely applied to regulated actors or only sporadically enforced. Looking to both the content of regulations, violations of the regulations, and enforcement therefore provides a more complete regulatory picture. The Energy Institute at the University of Texas funded the research for this paper.
Regulation of Shale Gas Development, Including Hydraulic Fracturing
Author: Hannah Jacobs Wiseman
Publisher:
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis paper provides one of the first detailed surveys of current oil and gas and hydraulic fracturing (also called fracing, fracking, or hydrofracking) regulation. It identifies and compares the environmental laws and regulations that apply to most stages of the oil or gas development process in shales and tight sands, from conducting seismic testing to constructing a well pad, drilling, withdrawing water, completing a hydraulic fracture treatment, and storing and disposing of waste. It briefly describes municipal ordinances and federal regulations, including recently-announced EPA regulatory efforts, but focuses primarily on the states, comparing regulations in sixteen states. The paper's comparison tables show that state regulations in some areas vary substantially, and the paper attempts to connect the potential risks of oil and gas development from shales and tight sands -- which are addressed in another Energy Institute paper by Professor Ian Duncan -- to the regulation. The paper concludes that states should modify certain regulations to address these risks. Some states do not require specific types of blowout prevention, for example, offering only a narrative standard, yet well blowouts are an important concern at the drilling and fracturing stage. States also should update their casing and cementing regulations to protect well integrity during drilling and fracturing and ensure long-term well integrity, and they should require the testing of water around proposed wells before site construction begins. Ideally, states also would consider implementing a presumption of oil and gas operator liability for water well contamination, as Pennsylvania and West Virginia have done. For risks at the well surface, states should update spill prevention requirements at well sites and consider whether federal Department of Transportation regulations addressing the movement of fracturing chemicals adequately protect against spills. States also must explore better options for disposing of large quantities of new wastes and regulating the withdrawal of large volumes of water for fracturing to prevent adverse impacts to streams and overuse of underground sources of water. Further, states and the federal government must enhance air quality monitoring around sites and consider additional controls. Finally, the collection of more and better data, including information from baseline and post-production water testing, is essential. With states at the regulatory helm, comparison of public law strategies to address development risks can produce fruitful cross-jurisdictional lessons. The Energy Institute at the University of Texas funded the research for this paper.
Economics of Unconventional Shale Gas Development
Author: William E. Hefley
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2014-12-03
Total Pages: 248
ISBN-13: 3319114999
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book examines the economics and related impacts of unconventional shale gas development. While focusing on the Marcellus and Utica Shales in the Mid-Atlantic region, additional insights from other regions are included to provide a broader view of these issues. Shale gas development in recent years has changed the energy discussion in the US, as existing reserves of natural gas coupled with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing make exploitation of these reserves economically feasible. The importance of natural gas is seen as likely to continue to expand over the coming years, and is expected to increase even further with environmental considerations, such as greenhouse gas emissions. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing producing natural gas from deposits such as the Marcellus Shale is making the US a net producer of natural gas. Previous studies have examined the economic impact of exploration and production in the region. Other studies have addressed legal, environmental, biodiversity, and public health impacts of unconventional shale development. This is the first volume to focus solely on the economics and related financial impacts of this development. This book not only fills the research gap, but also provides information that policy makers and the public need to better understand this pressing issue.
Governing Shale Gas
Author: John Whitton
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-07-27
Total Pages: 382
ISBN-13: 1317267567
DOWNLOAD EBOOKShale energy development is an issue of global importance. The number of reserves globally, and their potential economic return, have increased dramatically in the past decade. Questions abound, however, about the appropriate governance systems to manage the risks of unconventional oil and gas development and the ability for citizens to engage and participate in decisions regarding these systems. Stakeholder participation is essential for the social and political legitimacy of energy extraction and production, what the industry calls a 'social license' to operate. This book attempts to bring together critical themes inherent in the energy governance literature and illustrate them through cases in multiple countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Germany and Poland. These themes include how multiple actors and institutions – industry, governments and regulatory bodies at all scales, communities, opposition movements, and individual landowners – have roles in developing, contesting, monitoring, and enforcing practices and regulations within unconventional oil and gas development. Overall, the book proposes a systemic, participatory, community-led approach required to achieve a form of legitimacy that allows communities to derive social priorities by a process of community visioning. This book will be of great relevance to scholars and policy-makers with an interest in shale gas development, and energy policy and governance.
Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Development in China
Author: Meiyu Guo
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: 2021-03-07
Total Pages: 110
ISBN-13: 9811604908
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book features a comprehensive analysis of the development of shale gas resources in China, with a focus on the potential environmental impacts that may result. China has the world’s largest shale gas resources, which it is keen to develop to alleviate air pollution and successfully transition to a low-carbon energy future. However, one significant obstacle standing between the ambition and reality is the potentially serious environmental impacts of shale gas production. This book offers a systematic assessment of these potential impacts, including the risk of water contamination, ecological disruption due to the huge consumption of water and methane leakage. It presents valuable first-hand data collected from the authors’ fieldwork in Sichuan and Chongqing and the latest information on China’s current shale gas operations and also includes a set of models and methods developed to quantify the impacts. It allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of environmental regulatory management systems regarding shale gas production in China by examining whether the existing monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems and environmental regulations can effectively prevent adverse impacts from shale gas production. Providing a detailed study of shale gas development in China based on an unprecedented primary dataset, the book is a valuable resource for scholars, engineers and students who are interested in the energy development and environmental risks.
The Global Impact of Unconventional Shale Gas Development
Author: Yongsheng Wang
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2016-07-15
Total Pages: 252
ISBN-13: 331931680X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book discusses the economic, political, and environmental issues surrounding the international exploration and exploitation of conventional and unconventional natural gas. Shale gas development in recent years has changed the energy discussion in the US as existing reserves of natural gas coupled with horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing make exploitation of these reserves economically feasible; the discussion is quickly becoming international in scope. The potential expansion of natural gas development impacts many regions of the globe and spans multiple perspectives. In a volatile international climate, one of intense geopolitical conflict between Russia and the West, economic slowdowns in Europe and China, military conflicts in the Middle East and northern Africa, and widening income disparity in the U.S., a relatively inexpensive and plentiful energy source like shale gas could play a key role in mitigating such conflicts. In an energy interdependent global community, however, multiple factors such as oil prices, differing rates of exploration, environmental concerns, strategic initiatives, institutional changes, legal and regulatory issues, and actions of the nations involved all have the potential to influence future outcomes. This book discusses each of these in turn, detailing the issues most prevalent in each geographical area. The first volume to provide a comprehensive global view of the impacts of shale gas development, this book fills a gap in the current research literature, providing vital information for the scholarly community and the public alike. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of economics, energy policy, public administration, and international relations as well as policy makers and residents of the regions that are experiencing shale gas development.
Shale Gas and the Future of Energy
Author: John C. Dernbach and James R. May
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Published: 2016-02-26
Total Pages: 343
ISBN-13: 178347615X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe rapid growth of shale gas development has led to an intense and polarizing debate about its merit. This book asks and suggests answers to the question that has not yet been systematically analysed: what laws and policies are needed to ensure that shale gas development helps to accelerate the transition to sustainability? In this groundbreaking book, more than a dozen experts in policy and academia assess the role that sustainability plays in decisions concerning shale gas development in the US and elsewhere, offering legal and policy recommendations for developing shale gas in a manner that accelerates the transition to sustainability. Contributors assess good practices from Pennsylvania to around the planet, discussing how these lessons translate to other jurisdictions. Ultimately, the book concludes that major changes in law and policy are needed to develop shale gas sustainably. Policymakers and educators alike will find this book to be a valuable resource, as it tackles the technical, social, economic and legal aspects associated with this sustainability issue. Other strengths are its clear language and middle-ground policy perspective that will make Shale Gas and the Future of Energy accessible to both students and the general public.
Risks and Risk Governance in Shale Gas Development
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Published: 2014-09-30
Total Pages: 232
ISBN-13: 0309312604
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNatural gas in deep shale formations, which can be developed by hydraulic fracturing and associated technologies (often collectively referred to as "fracking") is dramatically increasing production of natural gas in the United States, where significant gas deposits exist in formations that underlie many states. Major deposits of shale gas exist in many other countries as well. Proponents of shale gas development point to several kinds of benefits, for instance, to local economies and to national "energy independence". Shale gas development has also brought increasing expression of concerns about risks, including to human health, environmental quality, non-energy economic activities in shale regions, and community cohesion. Some of these potential risks are beginning to receive careful evaluation; others are not. Although the risks have not yet been fully characterized or all of them carefully analyzed, governments at all levels are making policy decisions, some of them hard to reverse, about shale gas development and/or how to manage the risks. Risks and Risk Governance in Shale Gas Development is the summary of two workshops convened in May and August 2013 by the National Research Council's Board on Environmental Change and Society to consider and assess claims about the levels and types of risk posed by shale gas development and about the adequacy of existing governance procedures. Participants from engineering, natural, and social scientific communities examined the range of risks and of social and decision-making issues in risk characterization and governance related to gas shale development. Central themes included risk governance in the context of (a) risks that emerge as shale gas development expands, and (b) incomplete or declining regulatory capacity in an era of budgetary stringency. This report summarizes the presentations on risk issues raised in the first workshop, the risk management and governance concepts presented at the second workshop, and the discussions at both workshops.
Regulation of Shale Gas Development
Author: Tushar Kansal (M.C.P.)
Publisher:
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 118
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKShale gas development has become big business in the United States during the past decade, introducing drilling to parts of the country that have not seen it in decades and provoking an accelerating shift in the country's energy profile. State governments, which have historically regulated the oil and gas industry and continue to do so today, were in many cases caught by surprise by the speed and the scale of the shale gas boom and are still trying to update and adapt their regulatory practices to respond to the impacts that shale gas development is causing in communities in their states. In some instances, these impacts have included groundwater and surface water contamination, air pollution, exploded homes, and damage to wetlands and other habitats, among other impacts. Shale gas development has also created jobs, brought economic development to distressed communities, lowered fuel costs, and has begun to supplant coal in the nation's electricity supply. The thesis seeks to understand whether primary regulatory authority over shale gas development should rest with the states or with the federal government. In answering this question, the author applies theory from the field of regulatory federalism to the practice of shale gas development to ascertain whether the federal government or state governments are best suited to regulate shale gas development. Grounding the analysis in both regulations as-written and as-applied in a number of states that have active shale gas industries, the author uses four key criteria to gauge whether regulatory authority should rest with the central government or with the states. These four criteria are: the geographic distribution of costs and benefits associated with shale gas development; regulatory capacity at the federal level and at the state level; which level can better foster innovation, flexibility, and adaptability; and which level can better provide efficiency, certainty, and stability. The analysis finds that, in most cases, states are better situated than the federal government to regulate shale gas development on the basis of each of the four criteria. The author also subjects current regulatory practice to a two-part test to determine whether regulatory failure is currently occurring that would compel the federal government to assume regulatory authority. The results from this test are negative. The author concludes that primary regulatory authority over shale gas development should remain with state governments. Finally, the author provides four policy recommendations, two each to state governments and to the federal government, to improve regulatory practice and outcomes in the future.
