Local Impacts of Unconventional Gas Development within Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Region: Gauging Boomtown Development through the Perspectives of Educational Administrators

Using survey and interview data gathered from educators and educational administrators, we investigate school and community impacts of unconventional gas extraction within Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region. Respondents in areas with high levels of drilling are significantly more likely to perceive the effects of local economic gains, but also report increased inequality, heightened vulnerability of disadvantaged community members, and pronounced strains on local infrastructure. As community stakeholders in positions of local leadership, school leaders in areas experiencing Marcellus Shale natural gas extraction often face multiple decision-making dilemmas. These dilemmas occur in the context of incomplete information and rapid, unpredictable community change involving the emergence of both new opportunities and new insecurities.     

Environmental risks associated with developing oil sands in southwestern Nigeria

Nigeria is in the advanced development stages of extracting its oil sands resources to boost national revenue and economic prosperity, like other countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa including the Republic of Congo and Madagascar. Compared to resource‐rich developed countries like Canada and America, the consequences of oil sands extraction is likely to be disastrous in countries like Nigeria that have a poor reputation for managing resources (as is the case with the petroleum sector). Using a mixed‐method approach—focus group discussions, interviews and observations—this paper addresses environmental concerns about oil sands extraction in Nigeria. Overall, the communities perceived oil sands development negatively, because of fears of loss of communal lands, biodiversity, water availability and quality, and pollution. They were angry with the previous administrations over the lack of communication, and were deprived of socio‐economic opportunities and pollution from prolonged delays in oil sands extraction. The way forward is to form sustainable partnerships between the government, communities, industry and other stakeholders to achieve responsible oil sands development—environmentally friendly development that meets climate obligations, addresses cumulative impacts, and acts in the best interest of host communities and Nigerians.     

Arrest Rates during Natural Resource Development: Drilling,Drinking and Disorderly Conduct in the Marcellus Shale Region

Increased criminal activity has been linked to rapid natural resource development, particularly in rural areas. These “boomtowns” often experience rapid population growth, resulting in “social disruption”. This research examines one component of social disruption, crime, in the context of unconventional energy development in Pennsylvania. We employ quantitative longitudinal methods to examine the association between county-level arrest rates for four types of minor crimes and unconventional natural gas well density in Pennsylvania from 2005 to 2014 controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables. Results indicate that well density is positively associated with driving under the influence and disorderly conduct arrest rates, but is not associated with arrest rates for drug abuse violations or public drunkenness. Findings suggest the need to look beyond broad categories of criminal activity to particular types of crime related to energy development, and to what extent these indicate broader patterns of social disruption.     

A Scenario-Based Hydrocarbon Production Forecast for Louisiana

Conventional oil and gas productions in Louisiana has been in decline for four decades, but in recent years, new technology and capital investment have opened up a significant new resource play in the Haynesville shale, reversing Louisiana’s gas production decline. The need for long-term forecasting has become more important for state planning and for facilitating efficient regulatory development and incentive programs, as the largest oil and gas fields diminish in productivity and the promise of unconventional resources are realized. The purpose of this article is to present a hydrocarbon production forecast for Louisiana using disaggregate resource classes and a transparent analytic framework. A field-level evaluation is employed for producing fields categorized by primary product, resource category, geographic area, and production class. Undiscovered fields are classified according to conventional and unconventional categories and are modeled using a probabilistic and scenario-based forecast. The analytic framework is described along with a discussion of the model results and limitations of the analysis. Louisiana is in the early stages of transitioning to a primarily gas-producing state, and the manner in which the Haynesville shale develops will play a critical role in deliverability and economic prospects in the future.     

Does carbon finance make a sustainable difference? Hydropower expansion and livelihood trade‐offs in the Red River valley,Yunnan Province,China

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a carbon credit trading scheme intended to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and promote ‘sustainable development’. Hundreds of CDM‐sponsored hydroelectric dams have been constructed in southwest China's Yunnan Province, where carbon finance contributes substantial financial incentives to hydropower expansion. This article investigates whether riparian Handai farmers settled near the Madushan hydropower plant on the Chinese section of Red River have experienced positive outcomes from this project's participation in the CDM. I assess how Handai individuals' access to core livelihood assets has been modified following dam completion and probe how the CDM reconfigures scalar relations among the various stakeholders involved in hydropower governance in Yunnan. Though the CDM facilitates hydropower expansion, it fails to produce development that is more sustainable than ‘business as usual’ from a local perspective. Rather, the CDM consolidates hydropower governance in the same way as it unfolded in Yunnan before the province became an active participant in this scheme. The CDM also facilitates a national development campaign fostering specific socio‐economic modernization patterns in China's western provinces.     

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF WORLD BANK/IMF-FUNDED ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING IN BOLIVIA: AN ANALYSIS OF ENRON AND SHELL'S HYDROCARBONS PROJECTS

With the spectacular financial collapse of Enron in 2001, Enron and Shell's Rio San Miguel‐Cuiabá gas pipeline gained international notoriety for degrading the last, most intact dry tropical forest in the world, Bolivia's Chiquitano forest. The paper uses specific case studies, including the case of the Cuiabá pipeline, to examine how economic restructuring sponsored by the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Inter‐American Development Bank (IDB) facilitated the entrance of multinational oil corporations that have caused significant social and environmental impacts in Bolivia. The paper explores the influence of international financial institutions and multinational oil corporations on Bolivian state institutions, particularly their ability to regulate and address impacts caused by developments in the hydrocarbons sector. It concludes that neoliberal policies, which resulted in partial privatisation of the state oil company and in expanded control over natural resources by multinational corporations (MNCs), were detrimental to sensitive ecosystems and indigenous inhabitants.     

Heavy Oil and Oil (Tar) Sands in North America: An Overview & Summary of Contributions

As conventional oil and gas reservoirs become depleted other unconventional energy sources have to be recovered and produced. Four of the major unconventional resources that are strategic for North American interests are heavy oil, oil sands, oil shales, and coal-bed methane. Recent interest and activity in Canada’s vast oil sands are progressing rapidly as soaring oil prices are fueling a ‘gold rush’ in oil sands development in Alberta. This interest is evident by the record-number of oil sands and heavy oil presentations at Energy Minerals Division (EMD)-sponsored sessions at the 2004 and 2005 Annual Conventions of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), held in Dallas, TX and Calgary, AB.     

Unconventional Energy Resources: 2011 Review

This report contains nine unconventional energy resource commodity summaries prepared by committees of the Energy Minerals Division (EMD) of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Unconventional energy resources, as used in this report, are those energy resources that do not occur in discrete oil or gas reservoirs held in structural or stratigraphic traps in sedimentary basins. These resources include coal, coalbed methane, gas hydrates, tight gas sands, gas shale and shale oil, geothermal resources, oil sands, oil shale, and uranium resources. Current U.S. and global research and development activities are summarized for each unconventional energy commodity in the topical sections of this report. Coal and uranium are expected to supply a significant portion of the world’s energy mix in coming years. Coalbed methane continues to supply about 9% of the U.S. gas production and exploration is expanding in other countries. Recently, natural gas produced from shale and low-permeability (tight) sandstone has made a significant contribution to the energy supply of the United States and is an increasing target for exploration around the world. In addition, oil from shale and heavy oil from sandstone are a new exploration focus in many areas (including the Green River area of Wyoming and northern Alberta). In recent years, research in the areas of geothermal energy sources and gas hydrates has continued to advance. Reviews of the current research and the stages of development of these unconventional energy resources are described in the various sections of this report.     

Western Australia: the resource state

This paper examines the strength of Western Australia's claim to be ‘the resource state’. It traces the history of the state's mineral development and points to close links between the development, the growth of the economy and the spread of settlement. The crucial role of the state government in facilitating capital investment and fostering a growth ideology is also highlighted. The paper argues that while resource development and capital investment have brought tangible economic benefits to Western Australia and the nation, certain costs have also been generated. Growth has caused damage to the physical environment and the once‐numerous Aboriginal population. Moreover, given the international commodity crisis of the 1980s, mineral export strength is no sure recipe for economic success.     

Spatial distribution of unconventional gas wells and human populations in the Marcellus Shale in the United States: Vulnerability analysis

Modern forms of drilling and extraction have recently led to a boom in oil and gas production in the U.S. and stimulated a controversy around its economic benefits and environmental and human health impacts. Using an environmental justice paradigm this study applies Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis to determine whether certain vulnerable human populations are unequally exposed to pollution from unconventional gas wells in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Several GIS-based approaches were used to identify exposed areas, and a t-test was used to find statistically significant differences between rural populations living close to wells and rural populations living farther away. Sociodemographic indicators include age (children and the elderly), poverty level, education level, and race at the census tract level. Local Indicators of Spatial Autocorrelation (LISA) technique was applied to find spatial clusters where both high well density and high proportions of vulnerable populations occur. The results demonstrate that the environmental injustice occurs in areas with unconventional wells in Pennsylvania with respect to the poor population. There are also localized clusters of vulnerable populations in exposed areas in all three states: Pennsylvania (for poverty and elderly population), West Virginia (for poverty, elderly population, and education level) and Ohio (for children).     

A Review of Louisiana Drilling and Production Activity, 1980–2011

Louisiana plays an important role in domestic oil and natural gas production, and in 2012 ranked sixth in oil production and third in gas production in the United States. Conventional oil and gas production in Louisiana has been declining steadily over the past four decades, while unconventional gas production has seen spectacular growth in recent years, effectively doubling the state’s natural gas output over three years. The structural changes impacting Louisiana’s oil and gas industry are complex and dynamic, and to better understand the relationships between activity drivers, a review of drilling and production data between 1980 and 2011 is performed and correlative relationships are developed. Drilling and completion trends, including completion and success rate statistics and drilled footage, are summarized by region. Correlative relationships are established between measured footage and the number of wells drilled, drilling activity, abandonments, and commodity price. We show that drilling activity in North Louisiana is highly responsive to changing oil prices, whereas in South Louisiana, activity is relatively inelastic. Well abandonments are shown to be negatively related to commodity prices. Horizontal, directional, active, idle, and orphaned well inventories are summarized.     

Proppant Crushing Mechanisms Under Reservoir Conditions: Insights into Long-Term Integrity of Unconventional Energy Production

Proppant crushing, a major proppant failure mechanism, occurs in geothermal energy and oil/gas stimulation production stages when the level of net stress exerted on the proppant exceeds the actual crush resistance of the material. Loss of effective reservoir conductivity due to proppant crushing can result in significant loss in productivity, and so it is crucial to understand the realistic proppant mechanical performances under deep reservoir conditions. This review provides a comprehensive overview of proppant crushing at the micro- to macro-levels by analyzing single proppant breakage, as well as re-arrangement and breakage mechanisms of proppant packs under in situ fracture environments. The choice of an appropriate proppant type based on the fracture treatment plays a key role in effective geothermal and oil/gas recovery. In addition, injection of proppants with better characteristics (higher sphericity, lower size, better gradation and lower granular porosity) can significantly influence the reduction of the extent of proppant crushing. Moreover, this study compares the performances and responses of different types of proppants upon proppant interaction with geothermal and oil/gas reservoir environments. Furthermore, this paper discusses various proppant types and their enhanced characteristics, which can be utilized as controlling measures for proppant crushing during unconventional energy extraction.

     

Insights from past and present social science literature on the (unequal) development of New Zealand's rural communities

A review of social research on rural New Zealand undertaken as part of the National Science Challenge (NSC 11) “Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities” allows a fresh look at rural development within the context of New Zealand's colonial history. The research suggests that government development programmes and legislation privileged those responsible for producing the bulk of New Zealand's export income. Cultural attitudes, structural inequalities and a failure to understand how the character of, and social relations in, rural areas have changed has impeded particularly Māori economic growth, the participation of women, and non‐farm sectors of rural society, to the detriment of all.     

中国商品贸易结构不均衡性对地缘经济格局的影响

从国家对外经济联系中不同产业和产品结构的进出口贸易视角,考察中国^①（① 由于数据限制,本文研究区域为中国大陆地区,不包括港澳台地区。）地缘经济格局特征与影响。研究表明,中国商品贸易的总体态势是资源产品进口对富含能源国家的高依赖及工业制成品净出口对国际市场的强需求的不均衡特征;空间上则表现出国别、地区和方式较为单一且相对稳定,这可能会导致中国地缘经济与其他国家关联强度有一定的倾向性。集成资源产品进口和工业制成品进出口多指标显示,以工业制成品进出口为主的外向经济是影响中国当前地缘经济格局最主要的因素,而资源产品进口则次于工业制成品的作用,且石油和铁矿的作用高于天然气;在空间上形成了以重点经济发达国家与其外围周边国家为重点面域,联合重点能源国家为扩展的“面-点”地缘经济格局,中国进出口贸易地区大致形成了由近及远的多圈层结构,且关联度较低的国家镶嵌其中而表现出破碎化的特征。这一格局昭示未来一段时间中国地缘局势总体稳定,但受诸多不可控因素的影响,积极开辟和寻求多元化的地缘经济空间是有效应对对外经济联系突发事件的重要途径。     

Unconventional Energy Resources: 2013 Review

This report contains nine unconventional energy resource commodity summaries and an analysis of energy economics prepared by committees of the Energy Minerals Division of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Unconventional energy resources, as used in this report, are those energy resources that do not occur in discrete oil or gas reservoirs held in structural or stratigraphic traps in sedimentary basins. These resources include coal, coalbed methane, gas hydrates, tight-gas sands, gas shale and shale oil, geothermal resources, oil sands, oil shale, and U and Th resources and associated rare earth elements of industrial interest. Current U.S. and global research and development activities are summarized for each unconventional energy commodity in the topical sections of this report.     

Long-term implications of new U.S. gas estimates

The US Geological Survey’s 1995 estimates of domestic undiscovered plus undeveloped natural gas nearly tripled quantities estimated in its 1989 Assessment. Much of the increase came from selected unconventional resources assessed using the paradigm of continuous-type accumulations. These include such seemingly unrelated “unconventional” gas occurrences as “tight gas,” coalbed gas, gas in shales, and deep basin-center gas. Though only a small fraction of the assessed 352 trillion cubic feet is now economic, the quantity is nevertheless significant. Moreover, the lowest cost resources are close to major gas markets where competing conventional gas is modest. With continued technological improvements these resources can contribute significantly to future U.S. gas supply, even without subsidies     

Aid,trade and the ‘new realism’: Australia's links with East and South‐East Asia

Nearly all Australia's Asian neighbours are developing countries. Some, like South Korea and Singapore are now industrialising rapidly, while others such as China, Thailand and Indonesia have economies that have shown strong growth. Their significance as trading partners for Australia has expanded accordingly. Six of Australia's 11 most important export markets, and five of the top 13 sources of imports are in East and South‐east Asia. Increased recognition of this economic relationship has been termed the ‘new realism’ of Australia's international relations. Australia's overseas development assistance program has also given increased emphasis to East and South‐east Asia, not least because of perceived trade benefits. Yet while the growth of the new realist perspective is to be welcomed, it needs to be recognised that most of the countries within the region are still poor, and not likely to catch up to Australian standards of living for many decades, if ever. Future relations between Australia and the developing countries to its north, therefore, will be best served by a development assistance program that stresses the developmental and humanitarian purposes of aid, and confines trade related concerns to the countries and situations where it is relevant.     

Contextualizing other political ecologies: Japan's environmental aid to the Philippines

This paper argues for the utility of a focus on contextualized sources of environmental change to address the ever more diverse contexts of political ecology. In order to overcome the conventional approach to contextual sources that has tended to be analytically one‐dimensional and limited, I seek to provide a more nuanced account, notably by examining the neglected case of green aid of a nonwestern aid donor, Japan. Using conceptual tools that are both conjuncture‐based and multiscalar, the paper examines the way in which a post‐Rio international policy drive to promote so called green aid during the 1990s was translated into and conditioned by the historically and geographically specific contexts of Japan and the aid recipient featured herein, the Philippines. This focus on contextual sources helps to elucidate (i) how the ambiguous nature of international aid criteria combined together with Japan's own domestic political economy to render problematic an ostensibly environmental project, (ii) the manner in which neoliberal economic restructuring was translated into one of Japan's key policy initiatives in the 1990s and formed the backdrop to the specific aid case project discussed here, (iii) how Japan's environmental aid process in the Philippines was shaped through a repoliticization of various green discourses, and (iv) how the complex dynamics among stakeholders ended up compromising the very nature of the case study project.     

Employment change in Tasmanian manufacturing, 1980–1985: an enterprise‐based approach

Regionally‐based employment studies must place greater emphasis upon the specific processes taking place within and between firms which lead to employment change. The present study, using an enterprise‐based approach, examines employment change within Tasmania's manufacturing sector between 1980 and 1985. Restructuring taking place within the state's larger resource‐based firms is compared with the role of small indigenous firms in terms of their employment implications. Analysis suggests that future employment growth is least likely to come from the large resource‐based industries which, nevertheless, will continue to employ a major share of Tasmania's manufacturing workforce. Most employment growth since 1980 has come from the state's small indigenous firms which sell their products primarily within the local region. Given the limited Tasmanian market, the potential for continued employment growth within the indigenous firm sector largely depends on these firms’ improved export performances in mainland and overseas markets.     

Policy Performance and Brownfield Redevelopment in Milwaukee,Wisconsin*

The redevelopment of brownfield sites has become a central focus of government efforts aimed at developing and revitalizing urban areas in the U.S. This article examines brownfield redevelopment efforts in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, which gained momentum in the mid‐1990s, in order to determine how Milwaukee is performing in terms of redevelopment activities, what the effects of government support of such activities have been, and how performance outcomes are currently being measured. Through an examination of government data and interviews with key stakeholders, the Milwaukee case reveals that redevelopment is indeed progressing well as government becomes more effective at tackling the barriers to private‐sector redevelopment. However, progress in redeveloping brownfields is still being measured primarily in terms of economic development outcomes rather than in terms of the broader social, economic, and environmental objectives that both policy makers and private‐sector stakeholders associate with such redevelopment.