The recent growth in unconventional natural gas production has also produced a profusion of publications on the exploration, development, production, infrastructure, economics, uses, and environmental impacts of these resources. These publications build on a strong body of existing literature that traces the evolution of these resources from their conceptual stages in the 1970s to the technology advancements that started the shale gas boom in the early 2000s. Between 2009 and 2013, government, industry, academic, scientific, non-governmental, and citizen organizations have added a substantial body of literature on the environmental impacts that could result from the continuing development of shale gas, tight gas sands, and coalbed methane resources.

 

This report summarizes the current state of published descriptions of the potential environmental impacts of unconventional natural gas upstream operations within the Lower 48 United States. As a survey, this report is by no means exhaustive. The goal of this report is to ensure that the predominant concerns about unconventional natural gas development, as covered by current literature, are identified and described. The sources cited are publicly available documents. Multiple publications on similar topics are compared and contrasted based only on their technical and methodological distinctions. No opinion or endorsement of these works is intended or implied.