Reflections on A Market Approach to Regulating the Energy Revolution

摘要

As a practitioner who has represented low-income individuals and community groups pro bono on environmental and energy development issues for over three decades, I appreciate the contribution of Professors Dana and Wiseman to the literature concerning the regulation of those particular risks and effects of the use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to develop shale gas and oil from formations once considered inaccessible. Coming from a state that, like some 23 others in our nation, has enshrined in law a misguided, discredited policy of being "no more stringent than" minimum federal standards on air, water, and waste management, I can appreciate the particular challenges of crafting adequate mechanisms in state laws in the absence of a national regulatory framework with performance standards and compliance assurance mechanisms sufficient to assure that the risks associated with each stage of shale gas development-from exploration, well development, and stimulation to closure and site reclamation-are internalized rather than being shifted "off budget" onto those who live downhill and downstream.