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Scale, shale, and the state: political ecologies and legal geographies of shale gas development in Pennsylvania

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  • Eleanor Andrews
  • James McCarthy

Abstract

Recent work on legal geographies has arguably paid far too little attention to the environment as both an object of governance and a terrain of struggle with respect to the law. Conversely, political ecology as a field, with its focus on informal and extra-legal dynamics, has arguably engaged too little with the legal geographies that are central to environmental conflicts in many locations. This paper examines and theorizes the legal geographies that have been essential elements of the recent boom in extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. Specifically, it examines the ways in which laws and the authority of the state more broadly have been changed, deployed, and invoked, particularly through the passage of Act 13, to enable the extraction of the gas in the shale and its circulation as a viable commodity. This analysis of the relevant multiscalar legal geographies illustrates the productivity of a more direct engagement between political ecology on one hand, and legal geography on the other. Copyright AESS 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Eleanor Andrews & James McCarthy, 2014. "Scale, shale, and the state: political ecologies and legal geographies of shale gas development in Pennsylvania," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 4(1), pages 7-16, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:4:y:2014:i:1:p:7-16
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-013-0146-8
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. O’Donnell, Tayanah, 2019. "Contrasting land use policies for climate change adaptation: A case study of political and geo-legal realities for Australian coastal locations," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Kelly Kay, 2016. "Breaking the bundle of rights: Conservation easements and the legal geographies of individuating nature," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(3), pages 504-522, March.
    4. Julia Sizek, 2018. "California’s Groundwater Regime: The Cadiz Case," Resources, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, January.
    5. Li, Boying & Zheng, Mingbo & Zhao, Xinxin & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2021. "An assessment of the effect of partisan ideology on shale gas production and the implications for environmental regulations," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 45(3).
    6. Fry, Matthew & Brannstrom, Christian, 2017. "Emergent patterns and processes in urban hydrocarbon governance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 383-393.
    7. Sébastien Chailleux, 2020. "Making the subsurface political: How enhanced oil recovery techniques reshaped the energy transition," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(4), pages 733-750, June.
    8. Middleton, Richard S. & Gupta, Rajan & Hyman, Jeffrey D. & Viswanathan, Hari S., 2017. "The shale gas revolution: Barriers, sustainability, and emerging opportunities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 88-95.

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