Risk Management and Governance Issues in Shale Gas Development

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People and their communities, as well as animals and the environment, face many potential risks from the process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract natural gas. Risk characterization for shale gas development may fuel mistrust because it does not now follow best risk-analytic practices, which involve representing the perspectives of the range of interested and affected parties throughout the process. The nation may be headed toward a pattern of confrontation over fracking that could undermine goals for both energy production and environmental protection. Moreover, current governmental environmental protection institutions may be unequal to the tasks of managing the risks presented by fracking. The research that has been done so far on these risks is almost entirely technologically oriented, but this project will bring together researchers from a range of environmental, health, economic, social, and decision sciences to analyze the governance challenges of shale gas development. New synergies and ideas are urgently needed in the design of governance systems that can work in an era of declining capacity in government institutions. This study will draw on research on the governance of newly emerging risks and will expose ideas from that research to critiques from practitioners and stakeholders who can bring practical experience to bear.This National Research Council project involves two workshops that address (1) the characterization of the full variety of risks (social, environmental, and technological), and (2) the governance issues associated with those risks. This project will point the way to a risk-analytic approach aimed at more adequately informing public choices; suggest governance models that hold promise for meeting the challenges of environmental protection in an era of declining regulatory capacity; and direct attention of the energy policy community to the need to include fundamental social challenges (not just technological ones) in the development of policies and best practices. Papers and presentations from the workshops are publicly available; additionally, a report identifies the range of risk analysis and management questions worthy of future evaluation and research-based options for governance that could be applied to meet those risks.