Defining and Closing the Hydraulic Fracturing Governance Gap

Heusner, Grace; Sloto, Allison; Galperin, Joshua Ulan

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2759847

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The potentially serious consequences to human health and the environment posed by fracking have raised questions about the current state of fracking governance. Some aspects of fracking, and particularly horizontal drilling, may be subject to a number of federal environmental laws, but exemptions and limitations in the major federal environmental statutes have rendered federal regulation of fracking patchy and incomplete (Heusner, Sloto, & Galperin, 2017). Nevertheless, the task of regulating oil and gas extraction has traditionally fallen to the states, and those with fracking within their borders, such as Pennsylvania, have enacted regulations to govern it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Fracking Information Disclosure Policies to Reduce Uncertainty in Risk‐Based Decisions

Lonnquist

Gallagher

2021

Review of Policy Research

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The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) boom has outpaced both our understanding of its potential impacts on human health and the environment, as well as the legal and regulatory frameworks in place to govern it. We conducted interviews in Pennsylvania with individuals living in communities affected by fracking to examine how residents perceive the laws and regulations that are in place to protect them from its risks. We found that residents felt that they lacked access to sufficiently comprehensive and comprehensible information about the potential risks that fracking poses. We then drew from scholarship on the use of information disclosure as a regulatory tool to discuss the need for increased information transparency in the fracking context, and proposed several policy interventions that could ease the information asymmetry experienced by residents in these communities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of Fracking Information Disclosure Policies to Reduce Uncertainty in Risk‐Based Decisions

Lonnquist

Gallagher

2021

Review of Policy Research

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“…Such policy decisions may be informed by health impact and other assessments, but these do not dictate central and local government decision-making. All parties of course tend to claim their assessments of hazards and risks are evidence-based or evidence-informed but that is not always how policy is made [ 6 , 7 ]. It presupposes the same evidence base is used by all parties and interpreted in the same ways.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Health and Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction Including Fracking: Global Lessons from a Scottish Government Review

Watterson

Dinan

2018

IJERPH

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Unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) including fracking for shale gas is underway in North America on a large scale, and in Australia and some other countries. It is viewed as a major source of global energy needs by proponents. Critics consider fracking and UOGE an immediate and long-term threat to global, national, and regional public health and climate. Rarely have governments brought together relatively detailed assessments of direct and indirect public health risks associated with fracking and weighed these against potential benefits to inform a national debate on whether to pursue this energy route. The Scottish government has now done so in a wide-ranging consultation underpinned by a variety of reports on unconventional gas extraction including fracking. This paper analyses the Scottish government approach from inception to conclusion, and from procedures to outcomes. The reports commissioned by the Scottish government include a comprehensive review dedicated specifically to public health as well as reports on climate change, economic impacts, transport, geology, and decommissioning. All these reports are relevant to public health, and taken together offer a comprehensive review of existing evidence. The approach is unique globally when compared with UOGE assessments conducted in the USA, Australia, Canada, and England. The review process builds a useful evidence base although it is not without flaws. The process approach, if not the content, offers a framework that may have merits globally.

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“…Gaps in regulations, such as dealing with wastewater handling, should be addressed. Examples of regulatory gaps are ample, for example in the US and Canada [50][51][52] and India [53]. In India, for example, only the inflow and outflow of groundwater are regulated for UOG extraction, but not groundwater recharge, excessive extraction or ecological impacts on groundwater during industrial extraction.…”

Section: International Regulatory Shortcomings On Groundwater Resourc...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A mobile application to protect groundwater during unconventional oil and gas extraction

Worthmann

Esterhuyse

2022

R. Soc. open sci.

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Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) is an important energy source for many countries, but requires large quantities of water for its development, and may pollute water resources. Regulations are one of the main tools to achieve government policy on natural resource protection. South Africa, which is energy-constrained, but also water-scarce, is currently considering UOG extraction as an additional energy resource. UOG development could commence as soon as regulations to protect natural resources such as water have been published. Such regulations are, however, often not effectively enforced, which negatively affects the protection of water resources during UOG extraction. This study addresses these enforcement challenges in South Africa. It focuses on the science–society–policy interface by proposing a civic informatics platform to assist with on-the-ground enforcement of regulations via a mobile application. This mobile application aims to address both groundwater monitoring and management as well as UOG extraction operations in a single platform, to enable regulators to protect groundwater resources more effectively during UOG extraction, while simultaneously enhancing transparency in the UOG industry.

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Defining and Closing the Hydraulic Fracturing Governance Gap

Cited by 3 publications

References 47 publications

Use of Fracking Information Disclosure Policies to Reduce Uncertainty in Risk‐Based Decisions

Use of Fracking Information Disclosure Policies to Reduce Uncertainty in Risk‐Based Decisions

Public Health and Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction Including Fracking: Global Lessons from a Scottish Government Review

A mobile application to protect groundwater during unconventional oil and gas extraction

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