Air Quality Impacts of Shale Gas Development in Pennsylvania

We estimate the impact of shale gas development on particulate matter pollution using a quasi-experimental setting in Pennsylvania where some wells were devel-oped to produce natural gas whereas other wells were permitted but not drilled. In do-ing so, we utilize a novel empirical approach drawing upon insights from atmospheric chemistry to account for windblown pollution spillovers in a difference-in-differences framework. Utilizing a high frequency, high resolution satellite-based measure of PM pollution between 2000 and 2018, we identify causal increases in PM_2.5 concentration ranging from 0.017 mg/m³ to 0.062 mg/m³ in the vicinity of over 20,000 wells, result-ing in approximately 20 additional deaths between 2010 and 2017.