Managing the Risks of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal and Regulatory Approaches

Managing the Risks of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal and Regulatory Approaches PDF Author: Sheila M. Olmstead
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
Booming production of oil and gas from shale, enabled by hydraulic fracturing technology, has led to tension between hoped-for economic benefits and feared environmental and other costs, with great associated controversy. Study of how policy can best react to these challenges and how it can balance risk and reward has focused on prescriptive regulatory responses and, to a somewhat lesser extent, voluntary industry best practices. While there is undoubtedly room for improved regulation, innovative tools are relatively understudied. The liability system predates environmental regulation yet still plays an important -- and in some senses predominant -- role. Changes to that system, including burden-shifting rules and increased bond requirements, might improve outcomes. Similarly, new regulation can and should incorporate modern understanding of the benefits of market-based approaches. Information disclosure requirements can benefit the liability system and have independent benefits of their own. Policymakers faced with a need for policy change in reaction to shale development should carefully consider alternatives to regulation and, when regulation is deemed necessary, consider which tool is best suited.

Managing the Risks of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal and Regulatory Approaches

Managing the Risks of Shale Gas Development Using Innovative Legal and Regulatory Approaches PDF Author: Sheila M. Olmstead
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
Booming production of oil and gas from shale, enabled by hydraulic fracturing technology, has led to tension between hoped-for economic benefits and feared environmental and other costs, with great associated controversy. Study of how policy can best react to these challenges and how it can balance risk and reward has focused on prescriptive regulatory responses and, to a somewhat lesser extent, voluntary industry best practices. While there is undoubtedly room for improved regulation, innovative tools are relatively understudied. The liability system predates environmental regulation yet still plays an important -- and in some senses predominant -- role. Changes to that system, including burden-shifting rules and increased bond requirements, might improve outcomes. Similarly, new regulation can and should incorporate modern understanding of the benefits of market-based approaches. Information disclosure requirements can benefit the liability system and have independent benefits of their own. Policymakers faced with a need for policy change in reaction to shale development should carefully consider alternatives to regulation and, when regulation is deemed necessary, consider which tool is best suited.

Risks and Risk Governance in Shale Gas Development

Risks and Risk Governance in Shale Gas Development PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309312604
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Natural 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.

Governing Shale Gas

Governing Shale Gas PDF Author: John Whitton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317267567
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
Shale 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.

Shale Gas and the Future of Energy

Shale Gas and the Future of Energy PDF Author: John C. Dernbach and James R. May
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 178347615X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
The 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.

Wastewater and Shale Formation Development

Wastewater and Shale Formation Development PDF Author: Sheila Olmstead
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1771881615
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. The number of tight oil and shale gas wells continues to rise primarily in the US, but also worldwide. The US has vast reserves of oil and natural gas, which now are commercially reachable as a result of advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies. But as hydraulic frac

The Global Impact of Unconventional Shale Gas Development

The Global Impact of Unconventional Shale Gas Development PDF Author: Yongsheng Wang
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331931680X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This 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.

Regulating Shale Gas

Regulating Shale Gas PDF Author: Leonie Reins
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1786433192
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
Regulating Shale Gas discusses the regulatory context of shale gas in the European Union and draws conclusions on the EU’s broader approach towards the regulation of new technologies. Providing the first dedicated examination of the overall regulatory context of shale gas in the EU, Leonie Reins reveals how the EU’s new constitutional setup after the Lisbon Treaty has complicated rather than facilitated the EU’s quest for a common energy policy.

Regulating Water Security in Unconventional Oil and Gas

Regulating Water Security in Unconventional Oil and Gas PDF Author: Regina M. Buono
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030183424
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
This book addresses the need for deeper understanding of regulatory and policy regimes around the world in relation to the use of water for the production of ‘unconventional’ hydrocarbons, including shale gas, coal bed methane and tight oil, through hydraulic fracturing. Legal, policy, political and regulatory issues surrounding the use of water for hydraulic fracturing are present at every stage of operations. Operators and regulators must understand the legal, political and hydrological contexts of their surroundings, procure water for use in the fracturing and extraction processes, gain community cooperation or confront social resistance around water, collect flow back and produced water, and dispose of these wastewaters safely. By analysing and comparing different approaches to these issues from around the globe, this volume gleans insights into how policy, best practices and regulation may be developed to advance the interests of all stakeholders. While it is not always possible to easily transfer ‘good practice’ from one place to another, there is value in examining and understanding the components of different legal and regulatory regimes, as these may assist in the development of better regulatory law and policy for the rapidly growing unconventional energy sector. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach and includes chapters looking at water-energy nexus security in general, along with issue-focused and geographically-focused case studies written by scholars from around the world. Chapter topics, organized in conjunction with the stage of the shale gas production process upon which they touch, include the implications of hydraulic fracturing for agriculture, municipalities, and other stakeholders competing for water supplies; public opinion regarding use of water for hydraulic fracturing; potential conflicts between hydraulic fracturing and water as a human right; prevention of induced seismic activity, and the disposal or recycling of produced water. Several chapters also discuss implications of unconventional energy production for indigenous communities, particularly as regards sustainable water management. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students of energy and water, regulators and policymakers and operators interested in ensuring that they align with emergent best global practice.

Economics of Unconventional Shale Gas Development

Economics of Unconventional Shale Gas Development PDF Author: William E. Hefley
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319114999
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This 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.

Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States

Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Natural gas
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description