Washington: There is notable consensus among experts about the key risks associated with shale gas production and development, according to a report released by Resources for the Future’s Center for Energy Economics and Policy (CEEP) February 7.
“Pathways to Dialogue: What the Experts Say about the Environmental Risks of Shale Gas Development” is the first survey-based, statistical analysis of experts from government agencies, industry, academia, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to identify the priority environmental risks related to shale gas development. The report can be accessed at www.rff.org/shaleexpertsurvey.
“We found a remarkable overlap for the most frequently cited risks by experts from different perspectives,” said CEEP Director Alan Krupnick, who carried out the analysis with co-authors Sheila Olmstead and Hal Gordon. “In fact, if we look at the 20 most frequently cited risks, 12 are common to all the groups.”
Over 200 experts responded to the survey. It asked them to choose among 264 possible risk pathways that link routine shale gas development activities—from site development to well abandonment—to the burdens (such as stormwater flows) that impact the environment and local communities in various ways (effects on surface water quality, for example). The experts were asked to identify their high-priority risks—defined as those for which they believe government regulation and/or voluntary industry practices are currently inadequate to protect the public or the environment.
Several of the 12 consensus risks pertain to impacts that have received relatively little attention in the popular debate. For example, the experts frequently identified the potential impacts on lakes, rivers, and streams (surface water) as a priority; less frequently, they identified potential risks to underground aquifers (groundwater).
For more information, see this link:
http://www.rff.org/centers/energy_economics_and_policy/Pages/Shale-Gas-Expert-Survey.aspx