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There is an incredible increase in earthquake activity in traditionally non-seismically active states, such as Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Ohio. In fact, Oklahoma has surpassed California to become the most seismically active state in the United States. Over the last five years, many researchers have pointed to a correlation between seismic activity and certain oil and gas operations, such as wastewater fluid injection and hydraulic fracturing. Oil and gas companies, state regulatory agencies, and local and state governments are unsure of how to proceed given that most of this activity is occurring in states with a strong and economically vested …

By 2015, the United States is poised to overtake the world’s current top producer of natural gas, Russia, due to the abundance of American shale gas, located in plays such as the now-familiar Marcellus Shale, which encompasses parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and certain Appalachian states and the Barnett Shale, located in North Texas. The recent rise in shale gas development is due mostly to the combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (also referred to as fracing, fracking, and hydrofracking) technologies. The combination of these separate, but established, technologies allows for economic shale gas production. This Article describes these …

The prolific escalation of activity in the Bakken is due to the relatively recent technological combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, coupled with high commodity prices. This requisite combination of technology and price permits economic hydrocarbon production of shale reservoirs. The resulting ramp up in shale production has propelled the United States to the top position as the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. But with this increase in production is a corresponding increase in environmental concerns. Foremost among these concerns is the rise in greenhouse gas (“GHG”) and volatile organic compound (“VOC”) emissions. The majority of …