Since the mid-2000s, technological advances have led to a dramatic increase in natural gas and oil production from shale formations in the United States. Along with this increased production comes new revenues and service demands for local governments.
The Shale Public Finance project seeks to identify the key public finance issues facing local governments experiencing this new oil and natural gas development. Supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and organized by the Duke University Energy Initiative, this project is producing a series of publications that describes local experiences and identifies key trends in every major oil- and gas-producing state.
In 2013 and 2014, the Energy Initiative sent Associate in Research Daniel Raimi to 10 oil- and gas-producing regions in eight states to gather information for a series of reports published on our website. Raimi is now continuing the research by visiting over 10 additional shale regions in eight more states (see map below). During these trips, he will interview local government officials and industry experts, and will gather financial data from a range of local governments.
The project will examine local government experiences in some of the most productive shale regions such as the Bakken, Eagle Ford and Marcellus, as well as legacy oil and gas regions such as the Kern County region of California and the North Slope of Alaska. We will publish our findings on the Energy Initiative’s main website.
This research was carried out at the Duke University Energy Initiative with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
