Understanding State Rulemaking Processes: Developing Fracking Rules in Colorado, New York, and Ohio

Abstract

Rulemaking is an integral component of environmental policy at both the federal and state level; however, rulemaking at the state level is understudied. With this research, we begin to fill that gap by focusing on rulemaking regarding the issue of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in three states: Colorado, New York, and Ohio. This policy issue is well suited to begin exploring state‐level rulemaking processes because the federal government has left fracking regulation to the states. Through semistructured interviews with a range of actors in the rulemaking process across these states, we establish a foundation from which future research in this area may build. This exploratory research yields some valuable insights into the roles different stakeholders are playing in regulating fracking in these three states, and our findings may be useful for explaining state‐level rulemaking more generally.

Research Article: Who's Regulating Who? Analyzing Fracking Policy in Colorado, Wyoming, and Louisiana

“…Fracking policy is one particularly useful policy area in analyzing state-level policy making because the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempted fracking from United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) review (Council on Environmental Quality, 2012;Evans and Schatz, 2005;Rinfret, Cook, and Pautz, 2014). 1 Thus, the individual states are in charge of determining how fracking should be managed within each state (Davis, 2012b).…”

“…Davis (2012b) argues that his research, though notable, is suggestive and that much more research is necessary to determine why states differ on fracking policy. More recently, Rinfret, Cook, and Pautz (2014) provide some descriptive insights regarding regulatory variations among Colorado, New York, and Ohio. More recently, Rinfret, Cook, and Pautz (2014) provide some descriptive insights regarding regulatory variations among Colorado, New York, and Ohio.…”

“…Instead, much of the literature regarding fracking policy has focused on the macro state-level policy changes that make certain states more likely to produce more stringent fracking policy than others (Davis, 2012b). Still, other studies have analyzed the likely role that stakeholder coalitions will have on state energy policy outputs (Elgin and Weible, 2013;Jacquet and Stedman, 2011;Rinfret, Cook, and Pautz, 2014). Still, other studies have analyzed the likely role that stakeholder coalitions will have on state energy policy outputs (Elgin and Weible, 2013;Jacquet and Stedman, 2011;Rinfret, Cook, and Pautz, 2014).…”

“…In fact, how states develop any regulation is a notoriously understudied field (Pautz and Rinfret, 2013;Rinfret, Cook, and Pautz, 2014;Shapiro and Borie-Holtz, 2011). In fact, how states develop any regulation is a notoriously understudied field (Pautz and Rinfret, 2013;Rinfret, Cook, and Pautz, 2014;Shapiro and Borie-Holtz, 2011).…”

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

“…While there exists a growing body of literature that investigates US state level regulation in this regard [29,122,123,128,151], little work is so far done for contexts outside the United States, notably Europe.…”