New drilling technologies and the discovery of significant new natural gas reserves in the U.S. are changing the landscape of energy production. As methane becomes plentiful and cheaper, it is likely to account for an increased share of energy production both in the U.S. and worldwide. Understanding the environmental implications of this shift is an important step for evaluating current and future regulatory regimes and potential policy responses to the “shale revolution.” This grant supports a series of independent research projects coordinated by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) that jointly aim to increase our understanding of the source and quantity of gas leaks by residential, commercial, and industrial end users of methane.  Led by Chief Scientist Steven Hamburg, EDF will bring environmental researchers from Harvard, Purdue, West Virginia University, and the University of Illinois together with engineers from the sensor industry and experts from the U.S. Geological Survey to launch a series of studies designed to measure how much methane gas escapes during its final stop in the distribution pipeline. Since methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, understanding the quantities emitted during end use is a crucial element in evaluating the potential climate impacts of a shift to increased reliance on gas. The work also has the potential to identify especially problematic, high-leak varieties of end use as topics worthy of further scientific attention. Grant funds provide research support, offset administrative costs of the project, and support efforts at synthesis and dissemination.

This grant funds the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) for the implementation of a predoctoral dissertation research fellowship program in energy economics. Fellowship support will provide young scholars currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in economics the opportunity to deepen their study of issues related to the economics of energy, including energy market design, innovation and productivity in the energy sector, the economics of the fracking boom, electricity transmission and distribution, infrastructure investment, the effects of environmental and other regulation on energy supply and demand, energy efficiency, and the economics of renewable energy.  Fellowships will be for a one-year period with an optional second year of funding contingent on satisfactory progress. Approximately seven fellows are expected to be supported over the grant period. Grant funds will be utilized for student stipends, defraying tuition costs, and permitting travel to professional workshops and conferences.

Funds from this grant support postdoctoral researchers studying energy, natural resource, and environmental economics at the Washington D.C.–based nonpartisan think tank Resources for the Future (RFF). The RFF program has several important strengths. First, supported postdoctoral researchers will split their time between defined projects and independent research, allowing them the opportunity to build the strong list of publications that is vital to securing a longer-term university position. Second, postdoctoral researchers will have the opportunity to build and expand their professional networks in policy, academic, and private sector circles, providing them with a broader range of subsequent career opportunities. Third, researchers will be trained in valuable skills like grant writing, public speaking, presenting material to policy audiences, and event organization, all of which will be critical for their advancement in their careers. Fourth, RFF will draw on a deep roster of senior in-house scholars and its extended network of affiliated university faculty to provide job placement services and career guidance. Fifth, there are no other federally or philanthropically funded energy and environmental economics postdoctoral researcher positions of this kind, making the RFF program unique in the field. Grant funds will provide fellowship and administrative support to the program for a period of three years.

Funds from this grant support three projects by Resources for the Future (RFF) that aim to improve our understanding of the broad array of local community impacts, both positive and negative, brought on by the extraction of shale gas and oil. In its first project, RFF will develop a comprehensive risk/benefit matrix and community impact framework that will bring together, in one place, a description and assessment of the various impacts that communities may face due to local shale gas extraction, covering everything from increased demands on local water infrastructure to increased traffic and noise. The second project will explore the legal and economic dimensions of private land leasing agreements, exploring the diversity of these agreements and how their differences result in differing consequences for municipalities and their residents. The third project consists of a qualitative exploration of the development of industry-community voluntary practices, protocols, and behaviors that constitute what is often termed the “social license to operate” in different localities. The effort will catalog how individual communities have worked with oil and gas companies to manage the inevitable disruptions caused by local oil and gas extraction. Taken together, the three projects will create a framework that will capture the diversity of local responses to the influx of shale gas developers, provide useful new directions for future scholarship, and give municipalities new resources for how to manage their own local shale gas and oil development.

New technologies like real-time electricity meters and smart appliances are generating vast amounts of new, granular data on household energy consumption. This grant supports the Energy Data Analytics Lab (EDAL) at Duke University in its efforts to use this growing body of data to increase our understanding of household energy consumption patterns; evaluate policy interventions designed to curb energy use; and anticipate strains, failures, and bottlenecks in the electricity sector. Planned research topics over the next two years include investigations into how big data can be used to develop accurate baseline assessments of energy resources, how to use remote sensors to estimate the distribution and growth of household solar panels, and how the discovery and extraction of U.S. natural gas deposits are related to price volatility in the natural gas market. Additional grant funds support a host of outreach and community-building activities by the EDAL, including the hosting of a workshop on advanced energy data analytics, the construction of a web portal to make EDAL research, data, and methods easily available to other researchers, and the training of undergraduate and graduate students through lectures, classroom modules, and laboratory assignments.

This grant provides partial support to a research project by the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) at the University of Texas, Austin. A multidisciplinary team of hydrologists, geologists, economists, and engineers led by geologist Bridget Scanlon will analyze the hydrological characteristics and wastewater production of five major shale oil and gas plays across the country. Using data on previous drilling at each play, the team will construct historical wastewater production estimates and then use these baseline analyses to forecast future water use and wastewater volumes. The team will then compare how water needs associated with shale drilling compare to other water demands in different regions and then estimate the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on contributing to water scarcity in these areas. Additional work will focus on gaining a better scientific understanding of increased seismicity induced by the injection of wastewater into disposal wells.