Risks and Risk Governance in Shale Gas Development:
Summary of Two Workshops (2014)
Paul C. Stern (Rapporteur), Board on Environmental Change and Society, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council 2014 National Academies Press
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.
