ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the interpretation of energy development costs and benefits is being affected by what researchers have learned from looking carefully at the local and regional impacts in shale extraction regions. It aims to probe the dichotomy that has been used to frame the shale decision: economic benefits versus environmental costs. The chapter also examines the contested results from analyses of the local and regional impacts of shale development using the narrowly defined perspective of job creation, tax revenues, and in some instances, negative externalities. It demonstrates how reframing taken-for-granted concepts about environment, space and time can change how researchers assess the costs and benefits of shale development. There is an extensive body of research into the potential impacts and risks attendant to the development of shale gas and oil in the United States, and there is broad agreement about some of what needs to go into the shale decision.
