Managing the Risks of Unconventional Oil and Gas Development

CBI is pleased to announce the release of "Managing the Risks of Unconventional Oil and Gas Development: What Local Communities Can Learn from Others' Experiences."

Produced in partnership with the Union of Concerned Scientists, this report is intended to serve as a non-partisan resource for county and municipal officials in communities around the country who currently or may soon have oil and gas development in their jurisdictions.

The report highlights regulatory, non-regulatory, and fiscal tools that may be available to local officials and decision makers to assess, manage, and minimize the impacts and risks associated with oil and gas development.  It presents examples of approaches that local governments in eight states have used, which may be options to consider for local officials in other areas. Through a series of interviews with various local public officials, CBI and the Union of Concerned Scientists identified several best practices to consider when responding to unconventional oil and gas development which include the following:

• Maintain open communication and transparency
• Match a jurisdiction's resources with the scale and pace of development
• Plan for the discrete phases of development
• Account for the differences between urban and rural contexts
• Pay attention to the issues that might not be top-of-mind for constituents
• Create diverse revenue and energy streams for the future

"Managing the Risks of Unconventional Oil and Gas Development" is a prelude to a more in-depth publication, to be published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, about these same topics which we will be releasing in late 2015 or early 2016. 

The full report is available here.