The Power of Policy Regimes. Explaining Shale Gas Policy Divergence in Bulgaria and Poland

Strategic ignorance and politics of time: how expert knowledge framed shale gas policies

“…Therefore, hydraulic fracturing was new in the public and policy arena, generating definitional struggles between framing it as an innovation bringing economic benefits or an environmental threat. Comparisons between states within the United States , between the United States and Europe (Metze, Dodge, 2016; and within the European Union (Goldthau, Labelle, 2016; Van de Graaf, Haesebrouck, Debaere, 2017; Patterson, McLean, 2018) have stressed different policies regarding shale gas. The role of frames have been explored in various countries to show the impact of prime-movers toward shale gas (Rabe, Borrick, 2013), the conditions of success of a discourse (Sica, Huber, 2017;Bomberg, 2015), the various storylines about shale gas (Cotton, Rattle, Van Alstine, 2014), or the support of specific communities to narratives (Howlett, Hartwig, 2017).…”

Energy Governance in the Republic of Poland

“…It has been coined a "game changer" for Polish energy security (Gény 2010) for geopolitical concerns, e.g., independence from Russia (Bilgin 2009; Myers Jaffe and O'Sullivan 2012), as well as lowering overall energy prices in the European market (European Commission 2011). Debates in academic, political, media, and public spheres emerged on the potential of shale gas for a self-sufficient and energy-independent Poland, resulting in a "shale gas euphoria" (e.g., Adamus and Florkowski 2016;Goldthau and LaBelle 2016;Godzimirski 2016). When first exploratory diggings were, however, less successful than anticipated, the enthusiasm declined.…”

Conceptualizing the above ground factors in shale gas: Toward a research agenda on regulatory governance

“…Further, evidence from Eastern Europe suggests that a strong post-communist legacy, essentially fostering the public utility model in the energy sector, prevented shale gas extraction from scaling up [44]. The UK, by contrast, might emerge as Europe's next 'frontier' in shale gas, not necessarily because of the population embracing it but thanks to a sophisticated and long standing regulatory apparatus governing the country's conventional gas sector.…”