Search

Central to the growing policy debate surrounding climate change is the role of fossil fuels in the energy sector. Chief among these issues is the role of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," which has drawn controversy for its negative externalities while also allowing the extraction of a new range of oil and gas reserves. This research applies the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), combined with grid‐group cultural theory (CT), to examine the similarities and differences in the ways in which the general public and policy elites' policy preferences are shaped by culturally nuanced fracking narratives. In doing so, we employ a unique online survey experiment using a sample of the general public (n = 1149) and local policy elites (n = 1110), where our experimental subjects are assigned to one of four groups: a control group which receives a standard list of facts regarding fracking, and three treatment groups, each of which receives an egalitarian, individualist, and hierarch fracking policy narrative, respectively. We utilize causal mediation analysis to comparatively examine effects of these narrative treatments on fracking policy preferences. We find that policy elites and the general public are influenced by narrative elements in different ways, suggesting how a potential gap in policy preferences could form even if the general public and policy elites are exposed to the same policy narratives. This has implications for fracking regulation policy processes as well as other environmental and energy policy domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Multicentric lymphoma (ML) in dogs resembles non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in humans. Human NHL is associated with multiple environmental exposures, including to radon and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Hypothesis/Objectives The objective of this study was to determine whether ML in dogs was associated with environmental radon or proximity to horizontal oil and drilling (fracking), a source of VOC pollution. Methods We identified dogs from the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study that developed ML (n = 52) along with matched controls (n = 104). Dog home addresses were categorized by Environmental Protection Agency radon zone and average residential radon by county, as well as by distance from fracking and associated wastewater wells. Results We found no significant differences in county level radon measurements. Individual household radon measurements were not available. There was no difference in residential proximity to active fracking wells between dogs with ML and unaffected dogs. While dogs with ML lived closer to wastewater wells (123 vs 206 km; P = .01), there was no difference in the percentage of cases vs controls that lived in close proximity (20 km) to a fracking well (11.5% for cases, 6.7% for controls; OR 1.81, 95% CI 0.55 to 5.22; P = .36), or a wastewater well (6.7% for cases, 4.4% for controls; P > .99). Conclusions and Clinical Importance These data suggest that more proximate sources of chemical exposures need to be assessed in dogs with ML, including measurements of individual household radon and household VOC concentrations.

Background: Multicentric lymphoma (ML) in dogs resembles non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in humans. Human NHL is associated with multiple environmental exposures, including to radon and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Hypothesis/Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine whether ML in dogs was associated with environmental radon or proximity to horizontal oil and drilling (fracking), a source of VOC pollution. Methods: We identified dogs from the Golden Retriever Lifetime Study that developed ML (n = 52) along with matched controls (n = 104). Dog home addresses were categorized by Environmental Protection Agency radon zone and average residential radon by county, as well as by distance from fracking and associated wastewater wells. Results: We found no significant differences in county level radon measurements. Individual household radon measurements were not available. There was no difference in residential proximity to active fracking wells between dogs with ML and unaffected dogs. While dogs with ML lived closer to wastewater wells (123 vs 206 km; P =.01), there was no difference in the percentage of cases vs controls that lived in close proximity (20 km) to a fracking well (11.5% for cases, 6.7% for controls; OR 1.81, 95% CI 0.55 to 5.22; P =.36), or a wastewater well (6.7% for cases, 4.4% for controls; P >.99). Conclusions and Clinical Importance: These data suggest that more proximate sources of chemical exposures need to be assessed in dogs with ML, including measurements of individual household radon and household VOC concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) in crude oil amid the "financialization of commodity markets" and the "fracking revolution". It applies the generalized spectral derivative test (Hong and Lee 2005) on both West Texas Intermediate and Brent spot and futures markets, alongside a stochastic dominance test (Linton et al., 2005) to investigate arbitrage opportunities across markets and benchmarks. The findings indicate that financialization has made each market more efficient but also created more arbitrage opportunities in spot‐futures markets at both benchmarks. The fracking revolution has fragmented oil markets but had little impact on EMH in individual markets or across markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, North Dakota accounted for 11% of American oil production. Rural counties like Williams County, ND experienced rapid in-migration of oilfield workers and, consequently, acute housing shortages. Williams County provides an excellent opportunity to study the relationship between commodity booms and housing instability because its housing market is tied so tightly to the production of a single commodity. While fracking is often presented as an economic boon to these communities, we show that Williams County has experienced "rural gentrification," in which long-term residents are displaced by higher-income workers linked to the oilfields. To explore housing instability in an oil boomtown, this project links oil production statistics with evictions data and individual-level address histories. By showing how housing instability increased during the oil boom, this study contributes to our understanding of how rural communities are affected by extractive industry and how housing markets respond to rapid economic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, different stages of gas production in shale reservoirs are modelled. First, hydraulic fracturing is considered by injecting water at high pressures to crack the formation and increase the flow capacity of the reservoir. During the fluid injection, rock properties are modified and water appears in the stimulated area. Then, these changes can be detected through seismic monitoring. Finally, once the fracking stage is completed, the simulation of gas production begins. The simultaneous gas–water flow in the injection and production stages is modelled using the Black‐Oil formulation. Furthermore, a fracture criterion is applied under the hypothesis of constant temperature and constant stress field in this first analysis of the problem. The numerical simulations allow us to analyse the propagation of the fracture and the behaviour of the pore pressure and water saturation in the stimulated area. The advance of the fracturing fluid is delayed in relation to the breakdown of the rock. Besides, the presence of new fractures is detected by applying a poroviscoelastic wave propagation simulator that considers mesoscopic losses induced by heterogeneities in rock and fluids. After the fracture network is created, the injection well becomes a producer, allowing the extraction of gas and the flowback of the injected fluid. The simulated gas flow rates are compared with those obtained by a simplified single‐phase analytical solution used for practical applications, achieving optimum matching results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine in this paper how firm value (market‐to‐book ratio, MTB) of U.S. oil and gas sector firms from 2010 to 2020 responds to carbon emissions intensity measures. We investigate three measures comprising total carbon emissions relative to assets, to market value of equity, and to net property, plant, and equipment. Our dynamic panel data approach separates the 82 firms into 35 fracking and 47 non‐fracking companies to address features underlying firm financing during the shale oil revolution. Concerned investors about the companies' large carbon emissions may have pulled out of the sector. These companies may also have overleveraged when expanding into new technologies of oil production or kept larger cash flow ratios. We report lower average carbon emissions for fracking firms, together with the larger size of fracking techniques: mean of assets of $46 billion for fracking versus $12 billion for non‐fracking companies. Using fixed‐effects and system generalized methods of moments (SGMM) models, we find that carbon emissions decrease MTB of fracking firms more than non‐fracking firms. Our dynamic panel approach provides a more accurate measure of the real effect of carbon emissions that is very robust to Tobin's q as alternative measure of firm value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este trabajo indaga, desde una perspectiva cualitativa, en una serie de procesos relacionados con el crecimiento del megaproyecto de Vaca Muerta ubicado en la zona Norpatagónica de la Argentina. Se enfoca particularmente en los cambios ocurridos en Añelo, una localidad de la provincia de Neuquén ubicada en el centro de la actividad de extracción de hidrocarburos no convencionales. Para ello, se analiza cómo los incrementos de población, de circulación de personas, de nuevas actividades económicas, de requerimientos de servicios educativos y de salud, el aumento del sentimiento de inseguridad, de situaciones de violencia y riesgos ambientales, han singularizado el desarrollo de esta localidad. Aunque algunos aspectos resultan comunes respecto a otros enclaves extractivos, el proceso acelerado de transformación e intervención sobre los territorios coloca la atención sobre una dinámica que adquiere velocidad y contundencia con la extracción de gas y petróleo a través de la técnica del fracking.

Scholars have spent decades arguing that policy entrepreneurs, change agents who work individually and in groups to influence the policy process, can be crucial in introducing policy innovation and spurring policy change. How to identify policy entrepreneurs empirically has received less attention. This oversight is consequential because scholars trying to understand when policy entrepreneurs emerge, and why, and what makes them more or less successful, need to be able to identify these change agents reliably and accurately. This paper explores the ways policy entrepreneurs are currently identified and highlights issues with current approaches. We introduce a new technique for eliciting and distinguishing policy entrepreneurs, coupling automated and manual analysis of local news media and a survey of policy entrepreneur candidates. We apply this technique to the empirical case of unconventional oil and gas drilling in Pennsylvania and derive some tentative results concerning factors which increase entrepreneurial efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploratory fracking has commenced in the Beetaloo Basin, adjacent to Mudburra Country. At the time of writing, the Northern Territory Government is preparing to issue production licences to the gas companies involved. Environmental groups and some Aboriginal traditional owners, however, are insisting that the potential impact on land, water, pastoral operations, and Aboriginal communities has not been properly taken into account. Amongst other things, they point to the existence of stygofauna – tiny creatures that live in the underground water – which, though known to the traditional owners for millennia, are relatively new to western science. (It is likely that a word for stygofauna existed in the Mudburra language, but as far as we know it has not survived.) Research to establish environmental baselines prior to the commencement of fracking indicates that the stygofauna perform a vital function in purifying the underground water, and that they would be seriously threatened by fracking operations. As part of the protest movement against fracking, the authors have composed a song about stygofauna to be taught to the Mudburra children at Newcastle Waters School. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) has provided policy scholars with a valuable method to gain empirical insight into the power of narratives in the policy process. However, a significant limitation of the NPF has been its ability to deploy this framework on large N datasets due to the labor‐intensive nature of collecting narrative data. In recent years, NPF scholars have turned to computational social science tools to address this challenge. This study builds upon this emerging body of literature and our previous work, which uses sentiment analysis, a natural language processing technique, to evaluate the use of the angel/devil shift across coalitions before and after a major policy change. We examined Tweets that included the terms "fracking" and "New York" before and after the introduction of a moratorium. While sentiment analysis allowed us to gain insight into the narrative structure of the fracking policy discourse space, the labor involved in hand‐coding Twitter users into neutral‐, pro‐, or anti‐fracking groups was onerous. This project aims to supplement our natural language processing method by employing supervised machine learning techniques to increase the universe of respondents. We hand‐coded 500 Twitter users into neutral‐, pro‐, or anti‐fracking groups and trained a much larger dataset using an extreme gradient boost algorithm to classify a broader corpus of Tweets. This enabled us to expand the number of Tweets used in the analyses. We then applied sentiment analysis on this newly classified larger dataset to reveal differences in the pro‐fracking and anti‐fracking advocacy coalitions. By using machine learning to classify pro and con Tweets, we gained the ability to achieve significantly greater insight into how these two subgroups employed different narrative and linguistic devices in their Twitter discussions about fracking. Related Articles: Merry, Melissa K. 2022. "Trump's Tweets as Policy Narratives: Constructing the Immigration Issue via Social Media." Politics & Policy 50(4): 752–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12487. Robles, Pedro, and Daniel J. Mallinson. 2023. "Catching Up with AI: Pushing toward a Cohesive Governance Framework." Politics & Policy 51(3): 355–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12529. Shanahan, Elizabeth A., Mark K. McBeth, and Paul L. Hathaway. 2011. "Narrative Policy Framework: The Influence of Media Policy Narratives on Public Opinion." Politics & Policy 39(3): 373–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2011.00295.x. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financing frictions may create a misallocation of assets in a market, thus depressing output, productivity, and asset values. This paper empirically explores how liquidity shocks generate a reallocation that diminishes this misallocation. Using a unique data set of agricultural outcomes, I explore how farmers respond to a relaxation of financial constraints through a liquidity shock unrelated to farming fundamentals, namely exogenous cash inflows caused by an expansion of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) leases. Farmers experiencing positive cash flow shocks increase their land purchases, which results in a reallocation effect. Examining purchases across areas, I find that farmers in high-productivity areas who receive cash flow shocks buy farmland in low-productivity areas, but farmers in low-productivity areas receiving positive cash flow shocks do not. Moreover, farmers increase their purchases of vacant (undeveloped) land. Average output, productivity, equipment investment, and profits all increase significantly following these positive cash flow shocks. Farmland prices also rise significantly, consistent with a cash-in-the-market pricing effect. These effects are consistent with an efficient reallocation of land toward more productive users. This paper was accepted by Tyler Shumway, finance. Funding: This work was supported by the Kritzman and Gorman Research Fund Grant. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4602. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this article analyzes the petropolitics of the exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbons in pilot fracking projects located in Colombia, in the Magdalena Medio region. Based on fieldwork, it examines how oil companies strive to rebuild a relationship with the local population, while environmental risks give rise to strong social mobilization. The regional context of systematic violence against the leaders of grassroots organizations casts doubt on the transparency of business practices. We thus conclude that conventional petropolitics is perpetuated, as it fails to respect human rights and environmental standards.

This paper presents a sociological and legal analysis of a mode of action – municipal regulations promulgation – within a legal repertoire of action employed by opponents to Vaca Muerta’s unconventional hydrocarbon formation exploitation using the technology known as hydraulic fracturing (fracking). The inductive approach favoured here (textual analysis and comparison of the ordinances, information collection through semi-structured interviews) seeks to demonstrate that the choice of such a mode of action responds, on the one hand, to structural constraints of a political-legal nature and, on the other, reflects an attempt to foster a biocentric turn that is rooted in reflexive activist practices.

Abstract Background Fracking is a novel technique to crack calcified lesions by hydraulic pressure. This study aimed to compare the performance of fracking and conventional balloon angioplasty without stenting for calcified common femoral artery (CFA) lesions using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) analysis. Methods This retrospective, single-center, comparative observational study included 59 patients (67 limbs) with calcified CFA lesions treated with either fracking (n = 30) or balloon angioplasty (n = 29) between January 2018 and December 2020. The primary endpoint was 1-year primary patency. The secondary endpoints included procedure success, freedom from target lesion revascularization (TLR), procedure-related complications, and freedom from major adverse limb events (MALE). Predictors of restenosis were identified using multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis. Results The mean follow-up duration was 403 ± 236 days. The fracking group had significantly higher incidence of 1-year primary patency (89.8% versus 49.2%, P

El presente artículo se propone describir la política y las normas jurídicas relevantes referentes a la explotación de hidrocarburos en la República Argentina durante los últimos 20 años, para poder comprender la actualidad del sector.

Despite widespread acceptance that their emissions accelerate climate change and its disastrous ecological effects, new fossil fuel extraction projects continue apace, further entrenching fossil fuel dependence, and thereby enacting particular climate futures. In this article, we examine how this is occurring in the case of a proposed onshore shale gas "fracking" industry in the remote Northern Territory of Australia, drawing on policy and legal documents and interviews with an enunciatory community of scientists, lawyers, activists, and policy makers to illustrate what we call "divisible governance." Divisible governance—enacted through technical maneuvers of temporal and jurisdictional risk fragmentation—not only facilitates the piecemeal entrenchment of unsustainable extraction but also sustains ignorance on the part of this enunciatory community and the wider public about the impacts of such extraction and the manner in which it is both facilitated and regulated. Such governance regimes, we suggest, create felicitous conditions for governments to defer, forestall, or eliminate their accountability while regulating their way further and further into catastrophic climate change. Countering divisible governance begins, we suggest, by mapping the connections that it fragments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy conflicts are ubiquitous in many countries. Yet research on policy conflict is typically based on cases in western, democratic countries. As a result, little is known about the characteristics of policy conflicts in non‐western countries, such as China, or how these characteristics compare to western contexts. The Policy Conflict Framework (PCF) was recently developed to help scholars identify, diagnose, and compare policy conflict characteristics. This research uses the PCF to guide a comparative analysis of the nature of policy conflicts in China and the United States. With interview data on policy actors from Chongqing, China and Colorado, USA, we present the findings by comparing the differences and similarities of policy conflicts in the two countries around shale oil and gas development. We conclude with the strengths and limitations of this comparative study of policy conflicts in China and other national contexts, along with recommendations for conducting PCF research in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on ethnographic research in two locations facing the prospect of shale gas exploration in Poland and the UK, I analyse how the future can be simultaneously predetermined and undetermined. Local actors handle this complex experience by relating to fracking infrastructures, fixing the materialities of shale gas as well as cultivating an air of conspiracy around the intricacies of gas developments. I focus on the everyday to broaden the scope of recent scholarly writing on resource indeterminacy that explores how corporate strategies create the futures of resource extraction. The contradictory temporalities that these strategies generate have to be reconciled at the sites of extraction. I call for opening our theorisations up to how resource indeterminacy and assertions of predetermined futures are mediated in the everyday contexts of noncorporate actors. By considering these daily forms of engagement with resource exploration, we gain a more realistic perspective on the potentialities of extraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Iberoamericana de Ciencia, Tecnologia y Sociedad is the property of Centro de Estudios sobre Ciencia, Desarrollo y Educacion Superior and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Fracking must be regulated from a tribal perspective and ultimately phased out by renewable energy sources in order to prevent environmental contamination and threats to health and safety.  Like many other components of extractive industry, fracking disproportionately harms indigenous communities due to the socioeconomic status of indigenous communities, their unique relationship to the land (and specifically to water), and other harmful effects of colonization and racialization.  This Comment explores the proposed and ongoing fracking near Chaco Canyon and discusses the environmental justice issues this raises for indigenous communities in New Mexico.  This discussion is timely, as the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs recently released the long-awaited Farmington Mancos-Gallup Draft Resource Management Plan Amendment and Environmental Impact Statement, which amends the original Environmental Impact Statement for the Chaco Canyon area.  This Comment highlights the unregulated nature of fracking (specifically the uncertainty of spills, cleanup and remediation), its exemption from several environmental statutes, and the threats it poses to groundwater and general water quality.  The pervasiveness of these issues suggests that the most direct solution lies in cultural sovereignty and decolonial approaches to land management.

BackgroundPrenatal exposure to hydraulic fracturing (HF), a chemically intensive oil and gas extraction method, may be associated with adverse birth outcomes, but no health studies have been conducted in California.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of 979,961 births to mothers in eight California counties with HF between 2006 and 2015. Exposed individuals had at least 1 well hydraulically fractured within 1 km of their residence during pregnancy; the reference population had no wells within 1 km, but at least one oil/gas well within 10 km. We examined associations between HF and low birth weight (LBW), preterm birth (PTB), small for gestational age birth (SGA), and term birth weight (tBW) using generalized estimating equations and assessing urban-rural effect modification in stratified models.ResultsFewer than 1% of mothers (N = 1,192) were exposed to HF during pregnancy. Among rural mothers, HF exposure was associated with increased odds of LBW (odds ratio [OR] = 1.74; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.10, 2.75), SGA (OR = 1.68; 95% CI = 1.42, 2.27) and PTB (OR = 1.17; 95% CI = 0.64, 2.12), and lower tBW (mean difference: -73 g; 95% CI = -131, -15). Among urban mothers, HF exposure was positively associated with SGA (OR = 1.23; 95% CI = 0.98, 1.55), inversely associated with LBW (OR = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.63, 1.07) and PTB (OR = 0.65; 95% CI = 0.48, 0.87), and not associated with tBW (mean difference: -2 g; 95% CI = -35, 31).ConclusionHF proximity was associated with adverse birth outcomes, particularly among rural Californians.

ABSTRACTPeople’s attitudes towards hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can be shaped by socio-demographics, economic development, social equity and politics, environmental impacts, and fracking-related information. Existing research typically conducts surveys and interviews to study public attitudes towards fracking among a small group of individuals in a specific geographic area, where limited samples may introduce bias. Here, we compiled geo-referenced social media big data from Twitter during 2018–2019 for the entire United States to present a more holistic picture of people’s attitudes towards fracking. We used a multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to investigate county-level relationships between the aforementioned factors and percentages of negative tweets concerning fracking. Results indicate spatial heterogeneity and varying scales of those associations. Counties with higher median household income, larger African American populations, and/or lower educational level are less likely to oppose fracking, and these associations show global stationarity in all contiguous US counties. Eastern and Central US counties with higher unemployment rates, counties east of the Great Plains with less fracking sites nearby, and Western and Gulf Coast region counties with higher health insurance enrolments are more likely to oppose fracking activities. These three variables show clear East-West geographical divides in influencing public perspective on fracking. In counties across the southern Great Plains, negative attitudes towards fracking are less often vocalized on Twitter as the share of Republican voters increases. These findings have implications for both predicting public perspectives and needed policy adjustments. The methodology can also be conveniently applied to investigate public perspectives on other controversial topics.

This paper builds on arguments in policy formulation, the institutional grammar, and comparative public policy by comparing and analyzing the initial and passed versions of 105 bills in six U.S. state legislatures from 2007 through 2017. Our substantive context is oil and gas development. The findings show that shifts from proposed to final versions of legislation tend to expand more than retract in the institutional grammar components, averaged across states. However, this pattern of expansion does not hold when examining all the individual states. Furthermore, no consistent patterns emerge about the changes in the institutional grammar components across states; that is, we see variation across states in what increases or decreases from the proposed to final versions of the legislation. The findings underscore the complexity of policy formulation and the need for theoretical development, the sacrifices in validity when analyzing large samples of public policy using the institutional grammar, and the sizeable variation across states in the content of public policy for the same substantive area. We conclude with a call for a concerted effort using diverse research to begin to generalize and localize knowledge about policy diversity and formulation.

Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) production has reinvigorated US production while creating conflicts over governance and environmental injustices. Here, we focus on relationships among power, regulatory conflict, and procedural justice around UOG by examining the Colorado Oil and Gas Task Force (TF) and its decision‐making processes. Instead of statewide voting on UOG ballot measures, Colorado convened a 21‐member TF tasked with making regulatory recommendations. We draw on interviews, participant observation, and policy ethnography to examine: who sets the rules of the game, how players are chosen, and by whom. We ask the following questions: (1) How did TF members and other political actors exert state and institutional power, and how did that shape the structure, composition, processes, and outcomes of the TF?; (2) As a state‐created body, how did the TF and its internal processes disrupt or reinforce power relations favoring industry and fossil fuel development?; and (3) What were the procedural justice implications of TF processes? We advance scholarship on procedural justice by demonstrating how people operate at institutional scales to shape decision‐making structures, processes, and outcomes. We show how nonelected bodies can work as state interventions for industry, reinforcing industry power and procedural injustices rather than disrupting them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exploration of unconventional hydrocarbons may be very effective in promoting economic development and confronting energy crisis around the world. However, the environmental risks associated with this practice might be an impediment if not adequately dimensioned. In this context, naturally occurring radioactive materials and ionizing radiation are sensitive aspects in the unconventional gas industry that may compromise the environmental sustainability of gas production and they should be properly monitored. This paper provides a radioecological assessment of the São Francisco Basin (Brazil) as part of an environmental baseline evaluation regarding the Brazilian potential for exploring its unconventional gas reserves. Eleven and thirteen samples of surface waters and groundwater were analyzed for gross alpha and beta using a gas flow proportional counter. A radiological background range was proposed using the ± 2 Median Absolute Deviation method. Using geoprocessing tools, the annual equivalent doses and lifetime cancer risk indexes were spatialized. Gross alpha and beta background thresholds in surface water ranged from 0.04–0.40 Bq L−1 to 0.17–0.46 Bq L−, respectively. Groundwater radiological background varies from 0.006–0.81 Bq L−1 to 0.06–0.72 Bq L−1 for gross alpha and beta, respectively. All environmental indexes are relatively higher in the south of the basin, probably a direct response to the local volcanic formations. Traçadal fault and local gas seepages might also influence the gross alpha and beta distribution. All samples have radiological indexes below the environmental thresholds, and should remain at acceptable levels with the development of the unconventional gas industry in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unconventional oil and gas (UOG) production has reinvigorated US production while creating conflicts over governance and environmental injustices. Here, we focus on relationships among power, regulatory conflict, and procedural justice around UOG by examining the Colorado Oil and Gas Task Force (TF) and its decision‐making processes. Instead of statewide voting on UOG ballot measures, Colorado convened a 21‐member TF tasked with making regulatory recommendations. We draw on interviews, participant observation, and policy ethnography to examine: who sets the rules of the game, how players are chosen, and by whom. We ask the following questions: (1) How did TF members and other political actors exert state and institutional power, and how did that shape the structure, composition, processes, and outcomes of the TF?; (2) As a state‐created body, how did the TF and its internal processes disrupt or reinforce power relations favoring industry and fossil fuel development?; and (3) What were the procedural justice implications of TF processes? We advance scholarship on procedural justice by demonstrating how people operate at institutional scales to shape decision‐making structures, processes, and outcomes. We show how nonelected bodies can work as state interventions for industry, reinforcing industry power and procedural injustices rather than disrupting them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Góndola, Enseñanza y Aprendizaje de las Ciencias is the property of Gondola, Ensenanza y Aprendizaje de las Ciencias and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2008, the South African government started to discuss the possibility of utilising shale gas in the energy mix to produce cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable electricity. Shale gas was to be used as a 'bridge fuel' in the envisaged transition to renewables. Since 2010, anti-fracking groups and other environmentalists have been at loggerheads with the state and fracking companies. This paper focuses on the effectiveness and role of anti-fracking groups and the wider environmentalism apparatus to stall fracking plans. Data for this paper is based on qualitative research in the Central Karoo between 2019 and 2022. Fieldwork involved in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, observation, documentary study, critical engagement with literature, case law and media analysis. Although the previous literature demonstrated limited power of anti-fracking groups, these groups have set boundaries and gained strides in frustrating fracking processes and conscientising communities about the dangers of fracking. Using the case of fracking, I argue that environmentalists in South Africa have been emboldened by the legal precedents they have created at courts, the secretive and elusive culture of the state, and the global dynamics against fossil fuels, especially in 2021 onwards. If it were not for their activism, fracking would have started earlier. Environmentalists have also been emboldened by global awareness of carbon emissions, especially in 2021. The victories by anti-fracking groups lend support for the argument that civil society movements are central in lobbying governments to embrace good governance, quality democracy and human rights and environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurdles have been referred to by some as a global environmental disaster. However, relative to the controversies surrounding industrial fracking practices, such as public health and safety associated with extraction of shale gas (as well as shale oil), the problems with nurdles are not as widely known. In this article, we highlight that fracking and nurdles are interrelated: fracking processes are a major source of the raw materials used to produce nurdles, which are tiny plastic pellets polluting our waters. Our contention is that a key question for analysis of fracking is how to regulate the externalities associated with downstream products produced in the fracking process. This article takes insights from Elinor Ostrom and scholars of the Bloomington School of Political Economy—such as polycentricity, diversity of collective action problems (CAPs), coproduction, and institutional diversity—to analyze nurdles pollution as a global commons problem. Nurdles generate widespread, large-scale negative externalities that are difficult to contain and address within a fixed geographical boundary governed by a static jurisdictional authority. Using the case of the Royal Dutch Shell cracker plant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, we show that nurdles present complex and nested challenges that require coproduction, with citizen monitoring playing an essential role in mitigating negative externalities. We demonstrate the efficacy of applying polycentric approaches toward addressing CAPs associated with nurdles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fracking is used in the extraction of crude oil and natural gas from deep seated sedimentary rocks. The ubiquitous use of heavy trucks in fracking leads to traffic congestion and damages to the existing infrastructure in energy producing corridors. This makes driving hazardous for drivers of both commodity and passenger carriers, leading to traffic crashes near fracking sites. In this exploratory study, the case of Eagle Ford Shale of Texas has been analyzed to determine the impacts if any, of the variables of energy production, truck vehicle miles traveled, and other socio-economic factors on traffic crashes. Using both descriptive and statistical analyses of data, it has been found that some of the aforementioned variables have an impact on traffic crashes in the energy producing corridor. Based on the study's findings, appropriate recommendations to reduce traffic crashes in this energy corridor have been made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]