Analyzing and evaluating environmental risks from shale gas development is difficult - not least because there seems to be little agreement about what those risks are. As part of a major RFF/Sloan Foundation research project, scholars with RFF's Center for Energy Economics and Policy have attempted to address this gap with a new "risk matrix" listing and categorizing plausible risks from shale gas development.
The matrix includes not only high-profile risks like groundwater contamination, but less obvious ones like road congestion and habitat loss. The risks are grouped into "impact pathways" traced from specific development activities through identifiable environmental impacts. The matrix does not compare and evaluate these risks - but that's the goal of the next stage of RFF's shale gas work, partly through public and expert surveys based on the matrix.
See the matrix here.
