Energy Security, International Investment, and Democracy: The Case of the United States Shale Oil and Gas Industry (original) (raw)
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Path to Prosperity or Road to Ruin? Shale Gas Under Political Scrutiny
PISM Report, 2011
The report seeks to explore the reasons behind the stark polarization of the European debate about shale gas. Supporters of exploration and production from shale gas deposits consider it an opportunity to significantly alter the political and economic rules affecting Europe’s energy security. Critics tend to interpret the development of the shale gas industry as a threat to the environment, a challenge to the existing strategies of limiting the green-house gas emissions, or a competition to the well-entrenched economic interests. Thus the report analyzes the politics of shale gas, looking into debates in the select European countries and probing the activities of the EU institutions (the EU Council, the Commission, the European Parliament) in this sphere. The authors investigated a broad array of factors that influence the preferences of the key players: approach to the optimal energy mix, desired level of diversification of energy supplies, or the perception of natural gas imports from an energy security angle. In addition, the report highlights the significance of the North American experience with shale gas exploration and development as a crucial determinant of the European debate.
Geopolitics of Energy, 2015
The shale gas revolution is upon North America, it is the major energy development of the 21st century so far, and it can be exported to the rest of the world. These are the conclusions of Dr. Tuncay Babali, former Ambassador of Turkey to Canada, in this month’s GoE. On the third point, that the seeds of the revolution can be planted in other countries, Dr. Babali notes that over 6,000 Tcf of low-carbon shale gas is technically recoverable outside of North America. But certain conditions will need to be met for this to happen. First, nations need to develop production, transportation, and other infrastructure to support shale gas; they also must create an energy industry where landowners and other stakeholders are rewarded fairly for their cooperation and participation. In this sense, the world can look to North America’s successes and failures in building a workable shale gas industry in only a handful of years.
Enhancing the Energy Security and Governance of Shale Gas
Many assessments of the promise and pitfalls to shale gas development are incomplete. They tend to focus primarily on the benefits for electricity generation and gas producers, and therefore only address in a limited way the impact shale gas has on wider issues such as energy security and stewardship. We expand on the existing literature by considering a broad treatment of the energy security needs of the United States and other countries. We find that with the proper safeguards in place—public disclosure, sound water management, continuous evaluation and stakeholder engagement, selectivity in drilling sites, active minimization of negative externalities, and international performance standards—shale gas production can potentially do more help more than harm.
Geopolitics of Energy, 2015
The future of energy and its geopolitics can be discussed from many angles, including: advances in innovation and technology, renewable energy, environmentally friendly applications, the impact of climate change, and Arctic and Eurasian promises. However, the shale gas revolution emerges above the rest as the one with the most realistic potential. Yet the realization of this potential greatly depends on North America (namely the US and Canada) becoming a responsible, more integrated and more transparent energy market. Coordination and timely cooperation with strategic vision between the US and Canada have the potential to create the world's largest and most reliable supply chain for hydrocarbon resources. This development might have serious implications over the search for a new world order as well. Failure to develop this potential can possibly lead to greater geopolitical and geoeconomical rivalries and shift alliances in conventional hydrocarbon energy geopolitics with significant implications for the new world (dis)order. With the article, “The Shale Gas Revolution and its Impacts Over Global Energy Geopolitics: A Case for a Single North American Energy Market”, published in the May 2015 edition of Geopolitics of Energy – used as a backdrop and complementary-piece for this article, it has now become possible to better assess and stimulate more discussion on the shale gas revolution and its impact over global energy geopolitics.
A Word of Caution: State-Capitalist Investment in US Shale Gas
Scientia, 2024
This write-up provides a summary of National Science Foundation funded research (NSF grants #1661733 & #1911289, Usha Haley, sole Principal Investigator).The United States is the foremost producer of shale gas, but new NSF-funded research suggests that China’s substantial investments in U.S. shale gas producers, refiners, and distributors has actually hindered and disrupted American innovation in the field. More on this research is at DOI: https://doi.org/10.33548/SCIENTIA1014 In particular, Professor Usha Haley's research found that Chinese-funded operations shifted away from environmentally friendly production and led to greater methane pollution, despite increased federal regulation, while innovation from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) plummeted. Haley collected data through interviews with Chinese and U.S. managers, site visits, surveys of managers, archival data on green patents, federal regulation, company statistics, and industry operations.
US democracy promotion and energy security after 9/11
2011
The objective of this thesis is to find out whether the US is also genuinely committed to promote democracy in those countries on which the US has oil dependency or does the US energy security interest eclipse its foreign policy principle of democracy promotion abroad after 9/11. The hypothesis of this research is that the US is less interested in promoting democracy in those countries on which the US has higher oil-dependency. Materialist theory of democracy promotion is used to drive this hypothesis. Two statistical methods are employed, i.e. (1) hypothesis testing by using t-test and (2) regression, to estimate the variation of the USAID democracy assistance in those countries on which the US has higher oil dependency compared with those countries on which the US has less or no oil dependency. The findings of this thesis show that the USAID spends, on average, less funding for democracy-related programmes in those countries on which the US has higher oil-dependency and vice versa. These results indicate that, although the US prioritized its democracy promotion after 9/11 in order to tackle the problem of iv terrorism, the US energy security remains the prime concern for which the US compromises on its foreign policy principle of democracy promotion abroad.
Political Survival, Energy Policies, and Multinational Corporations
Management International Review, 2010
We draw on the selectorate theory and detailed historical research to explain how a government relationship with foreign multinationals will depend on the strategies followed by the host country's ruler to assure his/her political survival. Focusing in three oil-exporting countries (Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico) and one firm (Standard Oil Company of New Jersey) during the twentieth century, we show that oil rents are a valuable resource for the host country's ruler to assure the loyalty of his/her winning coalition. We argue that a government depending on a small winning coalition will use oil rents as a private good to be distributed among those close to the ruler, while a government relying on large coalitions will use oil rents as public goods to be distributed among the population. When acting against foreign multinationals, the host government is constrained by the political power of the firms' home country over the host country and by the relationship between the firm and its home country. Finally, we show that shared political agendas between host and home governments give the host government more space to maneuver against foreign firms.
A political economy of human rights: Oil, natural gas, and state incentives to repress1
Conflict Management and Peace Science, 2013
Oil and other natural resources are linked to many undesirable outcomes, such as civil war, autocracy and lack of economic development. Using a state-centered framework for revenue extraction, we identify why oil should also be linked to another undesirable effect: repression. We argue that repression is less costly where states do not rely on their citizenry for generating revenue, so that these states are more likely than others to use indiscriminate violations of personal integrity rights as a policy tool. We test this argument using a cross-national database with a variety of indicators of oil and fuel rents and personal integrity violations. Across all specifications and different indicators, we find a substantive and significant relationship between a state relying on oil and the violation of personal integrity rights.
Institutions and the shale boom
Journal of Institutional Economics, 2016
This paper uses the institutional economics of Douglass North to explain three features of the shale boom: why fracking technology emerged in the United States, the rapid increase in production of natural gas in the United States and the uneven response to these new economic opportunities in shale-rich economies. It argues that the institutional matrix of the United States, in particular private ownership of minerals, encouraged experimentation on the barren Texas oil and gas fields, where fracking technology emerged and the rapid transfer of mineral rights to gas companies. Institutional entrepreneurs, namely landmen and lawyers, facilitated contracting between owners of mineral rights and drillers. Private ownership of minerals and an ideology supportive of drilling provide insight into the adoption of regulations that encourage hydraulic fracturing.