The Politics of Fracking Regulatory Policy and Local Community Responses to Environmental Concerns Routledge Research in Public Administration and Public Policy Series

Over the last decade, the oil and gas industry has garnered a lot of support from the United States federal and state governments in the name of energy independence and economic prosperity. More specifically, hydraulic fracturing or fracking is said to not only make the production of affordable energy possible but also reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by substituting coal with natural gas in the utility sector. Behind the façade of many socio-economic and political benefits, the process of fracking causes serious environmental concerns. Dismissing the negative externalities of fracking simply raises the question, to what extent have communities close to fracking sites been adversely impacted by it?

In this book, Sarmistha R. Majumdar studies four communities close to fracking well sites in Texas to help illustrate to what extent fracking regulations have been developed in Texas and how effective these regulations have been in safeguarding the interests of individuals in local communities amidst the lure of economic gains from the extraction of oil and natural gas from shale formations. Majumdar has developed a model to show stage by stage community actions to regain their quality of life and the consequences of their actions, if any, on state and local regulations and ordinances, and the oil and gas industry.

This book will be an important resource for scholars of environmental and natural resource politics and policy in the United States.

Preface 1. The Method of Inquiry 2. Fracking for Oil and Natural Gas in Texas and its Impacts on the Economy 3. Environmental Federalism and Federal Regulations on Fracking 4. Factors Affecting States’ Decision to Frack and State of Texas’ Regulations on Fracking 5. Fracking and Its Impacts on The Environment 6. Case Studies on Communities Oppositions to Fracking 7. Oil and Gas Industry’s Responses to Communities Oppositions 8. In Retrospect: Implications of Fracking Regulations and Communities Oppositions

Sarmistha R. Majumdar is an associate professor at Texas Southern University where she specializes in the analysis of public policies, mainly those related to transportation and environment. She teaches classes on public policies, research methods and in public administration.