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

Depressed democracy, environmental injustice: Exploring the negative mental health implications of unconventional oil and gas production in the United States

“…Intersections of resource extraction, environmental shocks and stressors, and social disruption have been well-established across sociological research, including through the lenses of historical and current community natural resource dependence [ [60] , [61] ]. Further, variations in regulations across different places, and especially international contexts [ 62 ], can also result in drastic differences in how the industry is perceived, the pace at which UOG production is implemented, and even whether it is adopted at all in places like the European Union with more precautionary approaches [ 63 ]. While the shocks and stressors experienced amid UOG production are not surprising, they need to be more systematically analyzed for relationships to stress and mental health.…”

Debating Unconventional Energy: Social, Political, and Economic Implications

“…For example, whereas the United States was an importer of energy in the latter half of the twentieth century, since 2013 it has been leading the world in natural gas production. By outstripping Russia as the world's largest gas producer, the United States has asserted itself globally through energy (16). To analyze unconventional energy resources, scholars have begun to explore lessons learned from studies on conventional oil and gas (15), which include concerns regarding oil wars (33) and the so-called resource curse (negative economic and political outcomes in countries highly dependent on oil and gas exports for state revenue; 34).…”

“…Social science research on unconventional energy has expanded rapidly across disciplines, including political science and policy studies, economics, geography, anthropology, sociology, and law, and ranging from local (12) to national (13) to global scales (14). Building on a previous review on the environmental costs and benefits of HF (1) and other early contributions to the scholarship of regulation and governance of shale gas development and HF (15,16), this review provides a synthesis of social science research on unconventional energy governance, focusing primarily on HF (often referred to as fracking), 2 while referencing a broader range of fossil fuel resources when appropriate.…”

Disclosing Influence: Hydraulic fracturing, interest groups, and state policy processes in the United States

“…2 Some scholarship on hydraulic fracturing (HF) points to processes of both policy diffusion and policy learning in the development of legislation across states. Goldthau [10] notes both that the competitive policy process among regulatory experience, including in managing oil and gas revenues through trust funds [11]. However, given the technical knowledge associated with energy regulation [12] as well as the historic influence of lobbying groups in such regulatory processes [13,14], policy convergence in energy regulation through channels such as copy-and-paste legislating may be disproportionately weighted to the interests of select special interests.…”