Shale play governance: Politics and policy across the Marcellus Shale States

11:30am-1:00pm (Pizza lunch provided at 11:30am, lecture begins at 11:40am)

Free and open to the public.

The Marcellus shale play in the northeastern corner of the United States is one of the most robust deposits of natural gas in North America. Stretching from West Virginia northward to central New York State, the Marcellus shale deposit contains and estimated 141 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. While the deposit is a unified geographic feature, it lies under an array of political jurisdictions including at least some portion of 9 states and one Canadian province. In these "Marcellus Shale States" a variety of policy approaches have been adopted to govern the extraction of natural gas through the process of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" as it is commonly known. This talk will explore policies such as taxation, disclosure and regulation of drilling processes in a comparative manner across the states and municipalities on the Marcellus shale play.

About the speaker:
Christopher P. Borick is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. Borick is the co-director of the National Surveys on Energy and Environment, conducted in collaboration with the Ford School. He is a nationally recognized public opinion researcher who has conducted over 250 large-scale public opinion surveys during the past fifteen years. The results of these surveys have appeared in numerous periodicals including Time Magazine, The Wall St Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. He has also provided analysis for the BBC, National Public Radio, PBS, CBS News and NBC Nightly News and had his survey results aired on CNN, FOX News and C-SPAN. Borick has published and presented over thirty articles and four books in the area of public policy and public opinion. He has won numerous teaching awards during his career, most recently receiving the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award at Muhlenberg College in 2006.

Sponsored by:
Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP)

Co-Sponsor:
LSA Political Science

For more information contact Bonnie Roberts at 734-647-4091, or visit www.closup.umich.edu.

Event audio:

• fracking
• Christopher Borick
• shale gas
• local policy
• Marcellus Shale