Last week, final permits for the North Dakota section of the Dakota Access pipeline project were denied by federal officials. The project, which was designed to transport crude oil 1,172 miles from North Dakota to Illinois, has been met with protests on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, due in part to the its proximity to the Missouri River. The Army Corps of Engineers will undertake an environmental impact review of the pipeline to assess if the project can be completed in different ways, such as routing it through different parts of the state to avoid the river.
Experts from RFF, the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and the Stanford Natural Gas Initiative have considered ways in which the various factors of shale gas and oil development come into play in siting decisions, including what “optimal siting” might look like in a variety of contexts. As part of a webinar series, New Research on the Science and Economics of Natural Gas, experts discussed resource availability, lease ownership, environmental concerns, local zoning, and community preference as they relate to shale gas and oil development siting. View presentations and watch additional webinars in the series:
- Optimal Siting of Shale Gas and Oil Development
- Cost-Effective Approaches for Managing Methane Emissions from US Oil and Gas
- The Shale Gas and Oil Wastewater Disposal Cycle: Managing Earthquake and Other Environmental Risks
RFF on the Issues connects today’s pressing news with related research and expertise at RFF.
The views expressed in RFF blog posts are those of the authors and should not be attributed to Resources for the Future.
