Locating community impacts of unconventional natural gas across the supply chain: A scoping review (original) (raw)

Natural Gas Gathering and Transmission Pipelines and Social Vulnerability in the United States

GeoHealth, 2021

Midstream oil and gas infrastructure comprises vast networks of gathering and transmission pipelines that connect upstream extraction to downstream consumption. In the United States (US), public policies and corporate decisions have prompted a wave of proposals for new gathering and transmission pipelines in recent years, raising the question: Who bears the burdens associated with the existing pipeline infrastructure in the US? With this in mind, we examined the density of natural gas gathering and transmission pipelines in the US, together with county‐level data on social vulnerability. For the 2,261 US counties containing natural gas pipelines, we found a positive correlation between county‐level pipeline density and an index of social vulnerability. In general, counties with more socially vulnerable populations have significantly higher pipeline densities than counties with less socially vulnerable populations. In particular, counties in the top quartile of social vulnerability t...

Unconventional natural gas development and public health: toward a community-informed research agenda

Reviews on Environmental Health, 2014

Unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) using high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) has vastly increased the potential for domestic natural gas production in recent years. However, the rapid expansion of UNGD has also raised concerns about its potential impacts on public health. Academics and government agencies are developing research programs to explore these concerns. Community involvement in activities such as planning, conducting, and communicating research is widely recognized as having an important role in promoting environmental health. Historically, however, communities most often engage in research after environmental health concerns have emerged. This community information needs assessment took a prospective approach to integrating community leaders’ knowledge, perceptions, and concerns into the research agenda prior to initiation of local UNGD. We interviewed community leaders about their views on environmental health information needs in three s...

Managing Unconventional Oil and Gas Development as if Communities Mattered

2016

The advent of horizontal oil and gas drilling into relatively impermeable shale rock, and the companion technological breakthrough of high-pressure, multi-stage fracking that frees hydrocarbons along the substantial length of these horizontal wells, has fundamentally altered the oil and gas industry. The Energy Information Administration has gone so far as to predict that North America could become a net energy exporter as early as 2019, largely as a result of the explosive growth of this “unconventional” oil and gas development.2 Despite its promise, managing unconventional oil and gas development has proved challenging, and many of the communities that find themselves hosting this development have begun to push back in the face of serious public health and community impact concerns. Some communities have gone so far as to enact complete bans on “fracking,” the shorthand way that unconventional development is often described. Yet notwithstanding many legitimate concerns, the flexib...

Confronting An Uncertain Future How US Communities are Responding to Shale Gas and Oil Development

"Fracking" (horizontal drilling / high volume hydraulic fracturing) for shale gas and oil is a widespread, industrializing endeavor that will affect a variety of regions in the majority of US states. This chapter assays what we know historically about natural resource development cycles in general, the particular social and economic impacts and local government responses associated with unconventional fossil fuel development in the US, and what our existing knowledge implies for planning and the design of policies that will address the risks of shale development and sustain affected communities through the boom-bust cycle and for the long term.

RESIDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS FROM DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL GAS IN THE MARCELLUS SHALE: A COMPARISON OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW YORK CASES*

Communities experiencing rapid growth due to energy development ('boomtowns') have reported positive and negative impacts on community and individual well-being. The perceptions of impacts vary according to stage of energy development as well as experience with extractive industries. Development of the Marcellus Shale provides an opportunity to examine these impacts over time and across geographic and historical contexts. This paper describes case study research in Pennsylvania and New York to document preliminary impacts of development occurring there. Cases vary by level of development and previous extractive history. The study finds that, in areas with low population density, higher levels of development lead to a broader awareness of natural gas impacts, both positive and negative. Participants draw from the regional history of

Challenges face U.S. Gas suppliers

Natural Gas, 2007

ear-term projections by gas industry re-N search and trade organizations' indicate that natural gas consumption (supplied primarily by drilling in the lower 48 states) could increase by as much as 33 percent. Such an increase would raise consumption from the current 21 trillion cubic feet annually to more than 28 trillion cubic feet annually by the year 2015. This increase would give natural gas a 26percent share of U.S. total energy usage. Gas to meet this supply challenge will be produced both from current proved reserves of 164 trillion cubic feet2 and from the remaining potential resource base of 1,028 trillion cubic feet.3 John B. Curtis and Stephen D. Schwochow. .. 28 trillion cubic feet annually by the year 2015. Three regions-Gulf Coast, Mid-Continent, and Rocky Mountain-undoubtedly will provide the bulk of future domestic gas supply. Potential Gas Committee (PGC) findings illustrate that the amount of gas required indeed exists and is believed to be technically recoverable from each of these regions. New pipelines, expansions, and added capacity will help move more of this gas to more distant markets. However, in fully meeting these expectations, producers face several obstacles-in particular, gas imports from Canada and disparities in gas prices. Price differentials, arising from excess

Public perceptions of shale gas operations in the USA and Canada: a review of evidence

2016

This report is part of a project that has received funding by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 640715. The content of this report reflects only the authors' view. The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.