Location
Ceremonial Mootcourt Room
Start Date
30-6-2012 2:30 PM
End Date
30-6-2012 3:30 PM
Description
The complexity, interrelation and competition between environmental protection and energy supply security is an emerging problem. Often, State environmental protection concerns and standards are outweighed by a competing interest, such as ensuring energy supply security. This paper discusses the benefits and risks of an ecosystem service approach in connection with shale gas extraction in the United States and the European Union. The shale gas example demonstrates that even in advanced jurisdictions with high standards of environmental protection, ecosystem services are compromised for energy generation purposes. In addition, it explains the impacts of shale gas extraction on the individual elements of the environment and establishes how these result in the degradation of ecosystems and its services. Further, it discusses if an ecosystem services approach can ease the competition between energy security and environmental protection can establish economic and environmental equity. In other words, it will be analyzed if an ecosystem service approach offers a solution which assures the sustainable extraction of energy resources and protects ecosystems while enhancing economic growth and also improving internal energy supply security and public safety, health and contentment.
Shale gas, primarily composed of methane, is the gas which is trapped in compressed fine-grained sedimentary rock formations, the exact geochemistry differing from shale to shale.[1] The shale must either have natural fractures, or fractures must be created in the rocks to release the gas through the hydraulic fracturing method (fracking).[2] In order to release the gas, water is injected with high pressure into the shale formation. Mixed with sand and other fracking fluids[3] it keeps the fractures open and thus increases the permeability so that the gas can flow.[4] Through the technology of horizontal drilling, which deepens the original capture zone in the shale from 20 to 30 meters (by vertical drilling) to hundreds of meters, the gas produced per well increases, making the production of shale gas commercially viable.[5]
Already from this brief description of the extraction process it can be inferred that the extraction of shale gas is not as environmental friendly as often claimed by its supporters. On the contrary, it has massive impacts on all elements of the environment and several ecosystem services.[6] These include impacts on water resources, freshwater wetlands, ecosystems and wildlife, air quality, the noise level, seismicity of the rocks and the visual impacts on the extraction site and its surrounding.[7] Besides the obvious impacts on ecosystem services such as water, minerals and air (carbon sequestration and climate regulation), the shale gas extraction process also has impacts on food supply (crops, nearby agricultural fields and soil toxification) and on cultural ecosystem services such as on quality of life, tourism and recreation.
This paper will examine these impacts and the applicable regulatory landscape. Further, it will establish if and how payments for ecosystem services are already included in these regulatory regimes. And finally, it will assess if an ecosystem service approach is suitable to manage the shale gas extraction process in a sustainable way, striking the balance between environmental protection, economic growth and energy supply security and thus establishing environmental and economic equity.
[1] Phases adopted after Halliburton Energy Services, U.S. Shale Gas: an Unconventional Resource. Unconventional Challenges, 2008, 2.
[2] Deloitte, Shale gas- A strategic imperative for India, 2010, 3; for further and more detailed information about the definition, geology and geochemistry on shale gas see Halliburton, note 1 above, 2.
[3] For further information on fracking fluids and its use see Arthur, J. Daniel; Langhus, Bruce; Alleman, David, An overview of modern shale gas development in the United States, ALL Consulting, 14f.
[4] Bailey, note 6 below, 819ff.
[5] See Deloitte, note 2 above, 3f, for more information about the process of recovering shale gas see Robinson, Charlotte; Walta, Mary E., Note, Water for Oil Shale: Framework for the Legas Issues, in: 58 Denver Law Journal, 1980, as well as Arthur, j. Daniel; Bohm, Brian; Layne, Mark, Hydraulic Fracturing Considerations for Natural Gas Wells of the Marcellus Shale, ALL Consulting, 2008, 1.
[6] See Bailey, Adam J., The Fayetteville Shale Play and the Need to Rethink Environmental Regulation of Oil and Gas Development in Arkansas, (815-848), in: 63 Arkansas Law Review 848, 2010, 819ff, also for further impacts on the environment.
[7] For a detailed analysis of the factors see Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State, Chapter 6, Potential Environmental Impacts in: Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program- Well Permit Issuance for Horizontal Drilling And High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing to Develop the Marcellus Shale and Other Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs, 2009, 1-163, as well as Bartis et al., Oil Shale Development in the United States : Prospects and Policy Issues, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, 2005, 35ff.
Presentation
Included in
Environmental Protection Versus Energy Supply Security - The Shale Gas Case and Its Impact on Ecosystem Services
Ceremonial Mootcourt Room
The complexity, interrelation and competition between environmental protection and energy supply security is an emerging problem. Often, State environmental protection concerns and standards are outweighed by a competing interest, such as ensuring energy supply security. This paper discusses the benefits and risks of an ecosystem service approach in connection with shale gas extraction in the United States and the European Union. The shale gas example demonstrates that even in advanced jurisdictions with high standards of environmental protection, ecosystem services are compromised for energy generation purposes. In addition, it explains the impacts of shale gas extraction on the individual elements of the environment and establishes how these result in the degradation of ecosystems and its services. Further, it discusses if an ecosystem services approach can ease the competition between energy security and environmental protection can establish economic and environmental equity. In other words, it will be analyzed if an ecosystem service approach offers a solution which assures the sustainable extraction of energy resources and protects ecosystems while enhancing economic growth and also improving internal energy supply security and public safety, health and contentment.
Shale gas, primarily composed of methane, is the gas which is trapped in compressed fine-grained sedimentary rock formations, the exact geochemistry differing from shale to shale.[1] The shale must either have natural fractures, or fractures must be created in the rocks to release the gas through the hydraulic fracturing method (fracking).[2] In order to release the gas, water is injected with high pressure into the shale formation. Mixed with sand and other fracking fluids[3] it keeps the fractures open and thus increases the permeability so that the gas can flow.[4] Through the technology of horizontal drilling, which deepens the original capture zone in the shale from 20 to 30 meters (by vertical drilling) to hundreds of meters, the gas produced per well increases, making the production of shale gas commercially viable.[5]
Already from this brief description of the extraction process it can be inferred that the extraction of shale gas is not as environmental friendly as often claimed by its supporters. On the contrary, it has massive impacts on all elements of the environment and several ecosystem services.[6] These include impacts on water resources, freshwater wetlands, ecosystems and wildlife, air quality, the noise level, seismicity of the rocks and the visual impacts on the extraction site and its surrounding.[7] Besides the obvious impacts on ecosystem services such as water, minerals and air (carbon sequestration and climate regulation), the shale gas extraction process also has impacts on food supply (crops, nearby agricultural fields and soil toxification) and on cultural ecosystem services such as on quality of life, tourism and recreation.
This paper will examine these impacts and the applicable regulatory landscape. Further, it will establish if and how payments for ecosystem services are already included in these regulatory regimes. And finally, it will assess if an ecosystem service approach is suitable to manage the shale gas extraction process in a sustainable way, striking the balance between environmental protection, economic growth and energy supply security and thus establishing environmental and economic equity.
[1] Phases adopted after Halliburton Energy Services, U.S. Shale Gas: an Unconventional Resource. Unconventional Challenges, 2008, 2.
[2] Deloitte, Shale gas- A strategic imperative for India, 2010, 3; for further and more detailed information about the definition, geology and geochemistry on shale gas see Halliburton, note 1 above, 2.
[3] For further information on fracking fluids and its use see Arthur, J. Daniel; Langhus, Bruce; Alleman, David, An overview of modern shale gas development in the United States, ALL Consulting, 14f.
[4] Bailey, note 6 below, 819ff.
[5] See Deloitte, note 2 above, 3f, for more information about the process of recovering shale gas see Robinson, Charlotte; Walta, Mary E., Note, Water for Oil Shale: Framework for the Legas Issues, in: 58 Denver Law Journal, 1980, as well as Arthur, j. Daniel; Bohm, Brian; Layne, Mark, Hydraulic Fracturing Considerations for Natural Gas Wells of the Marcellus Shale, ALL Consulting, 2008, 1.
[6] See Bailey, Adam J., The Fayetteville Shale Play and the Need to Rethink Environmental Regulation of Oil and Gas Development in Arkansas, (815-848), in: 63 Arkansas Law Review 848, 2010, 819ff, also for further impacts on the environment.
[7] For a detailed analysis of the factors see Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State, Chapter 6, Potential Environmental Impacts in: Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program- Well Permit Issuance for Horizontal Drilling And High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing to Develop the Marcellus Shale and Other Low-Permeability Gas Reservoirs, 2009, 1-163, as well as Bartis et al., Oil Shale Development in the United States : Prospects and Policy Issues, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, 2005, 35ff.