SHALE GAS DEVELOPMENT, ECONOMIC IMPACTS AND REGULATION

This chapter focuses on the extraction of gas from shales, in part due to the major economic and environmental impacts of the shale gas boom on the electric power sector. It introduces the market impacts of US shale gas and continues with a discussion of the US regulatory response to the natural gas boom, from the national to the local level. US shale gas production has generated a domestic decline in both gas prices and price volatility. Shale gas has worked profound changes in energy markets because natural gas prices have been notoriously volatile in recent decades. Domestically, it has caused gas prices to decline and has led to rising consumption of natural gas in the industrial and electricity sectors. Just as the regulation of gas export has affected the pace at which US shale gas has become available globally-and thus the pace at which international economic impacts will occur-domestic regulation affects overall levels of production.