The Gas Dilemma: Shale Gas Attributes, Regulations, and Impacts

This report examines the multifaceted aspects of shale gas, a fossil energy resource, analyzing its positive and negative attributes. The report highlights shale gas's potential to reduce energy dependency and balance oil prices, while also acknowledging its contribution to employment and economic indicators. It also addresses the environmental concerns, such as global warming and water pollution. Furthermore, the report delves into the regulations surrounding fracking, discussing the debate between environmental protection agencies, the public, and the government. The author suggests that rather than restricting fracking operations, they should be regulated to mitigate risks, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between state and federal governments for effective risk management, environmental and economic benefits, and increased local acceptance.

Running head: THE GAS DILEMMA
THE GAS DILEMMA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1THE GAS DILEMMA
Response to Question 1: Positive and negative attributes of the shale gas
Shale gas is considered to be a form of fossil energy resource, which encircles every
negative effect under fossil fuel but it portrays various opportunities for a newer form of
energy resource. Although the attributes of shale gas have reflected various negative impacts,
researches have also identified various positive influences over the contexts of resource
utilization and reflecting environmental impact. The positive attributes include, shale gas
helps in reducing the dependency of energy usage as shale gas can be replaced in place of
coal. Coal can be more dangerous with respect to contamination in comparison to the shale
gas. Shale gas posses the attribute of balancing the prices of the oil. The prices of oil are
anticipated to drop with the replacement of shale gas in place of coal in various countries
with the infrastructure of shale reserves. The United States started generating shale gas,
which significantly reflected in their overall costs. Shale gas has the capability of breaking
monopoly within the exporting countries dealing with oil (Evensen & Stedman, 2017). Shale
gas contributes to the economic indicator by generating employment opportunities. China and
the United States are considered to be major exporting nations of the world with the
maximum potential of utilizing its worth. On the other hand, shale gas has the potential of
influencing or elevating global warming as well as other natural disasters like an earthquake
(Livy et al., 2018). The production costs for shale gas is very high, which may question the
alignment of cost to profit ratio. Although, it is believed and witnessed the reduction of the
overall cost of energy dependency and utilization shale gas production involves a high cost at
an initial stage, which can result in the challenges of setting the energy production. Shale gas
can also pollute water bodies (Livy et al., 2018).
Response to Question 2: Regulation of Fracking
One of the most evident areas of debate and issue has been Fracking between the
participants such as Environmental Protection Agencies, the general public, and government.

2THE GAS DILEMMA
It is definite that fracking can negatively influence the state of drinking water. The drinking
water contamination can be triggered through ineffective drilling actions and the practice of
drilling near the older wells (Lynch, 2016). Even though fracking reflects negative effects but
it can also be the path towards energy independence by drastically changing the economic
aspects and by addressing the climatic change. According to my opinion, rather than
restricting the operations of fracking, it can be regulated for reducing the potentiality of risks
through the prohibition of the injection of water closer to the water table and controlling the
operational design to harm. The regulations of fracking should be regulated by both the state
and federal government for overall risk management (Özdemir, 2019). The collaboration of
state and federal government in regulation will reflect on the elevation of environmental and
economic benefits with comprehensive and minute risk identifications, cleaner conscience
and increased local acceptance.

3THE GAS DILEMMA
References:
Evensen, D., & Stedman, R. (2017). Beliefs about impacts matter little for attitudes on shale
gas development. Energy Policy, 109, 10-21.
Livy, M. R., Gopalakrishnan, S., Klaiber, H. A., & Roe, B. E. (2018). The impact of intensity
on perceived risk from unconventional shale gas development. Journal of
environmental management, 218, 630-638.
Lynch, K. J. (2016). Regulation of Fracking Is Not a Taking of Private Property. U. Cin. L.
Rev., 84, 39.
Özdemir, B. Z. (2019). The Fracking Debate: The Risks, Benefits and Uncertainties of the
Shale Revolution.