[Add your own pictures here]
Exploring the local impacts of
shale gas development
Alan Krupnick
Director, Center for Energy Economics and Policy
RFF Initiative: “Managing the Risks of Shale Gas Development”
• RFF’s Center for Energy Economics and Policy (CEEP)
• An independent, broad assessment of the key
environmental risks associated with the shale gas
development process.
Local negative and positive impacts
Negative Externalities
•
Traffic (accidents, road damage)
•
Noise and light pollution
•
Visual impacts
•
Air pollution
•
Water pollution
•
Habitat fragmentation
Lucija
Positive Externalities
•
Those from replacing “dirtier fuels” (but unlikely to be local)
Positive Economic
•
Lease payments and royalties
•
Tax revenues, fees, etc.
•
Economic growth/jobs
•
Reduced utility expenses
Jim
Hunt
Negative Economic
•
The bust part of the cycle
•
Resource curse
•
Local infrastructure (water, sewer, roads)
Property Values: A nice (if imperfect) aggregator
Hunt
Jim
Lucija
Policy Context
• Localities have concerns
• Front line for explosion of “industrial activity” in their often rural
communities
• Many of the “external” impacts are obvious, but others are
hidden, scary and/or hard to attribute to oil and gas activity
• Grievances around fiscal treatment. New work by Newell and
Raimi: localities starting from modest infrastructure and without
taxing authority could be in for trouble
• These problems boil over into bans and moratoria
• Legal issues in power sharing, takings are far from
settled: Act 13 repeal
• Much debate over net economic benefits
Current projects
• Property value study: all counties in PA
• Truck traffic accidents study: use actual truck routes
• Expert survey follow-up: Deep dive, in concert with EDF
and “States First” on key impact pathways:
• First dive: pits and ponds
• Costs, risks, regulations, best practices
• Feed into States First process
• Western Oil and gas development and Agriculture: The
mediating effect of water markets
• Water withdrawals study: Susquehanna River Basin
Commission permit requests and permit data analysis
Priorities for the Future
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Net benefits to communities of SGD
Mental health effects of SGD
Frac Focus coverage
Habitat fragmentation modeling
Play out our Natural Gas Initiative
Thank you!
krupnick@rff.org
Risk Matrix
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