Governing Unconventional Oil and Gas Extraction: The Case of Pennsylvania

Over the past decade, directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing enabled an unconventional oil and gas extraction (UOGE) boom in many regions of the United States, including parts of Pennsylvania. This revolution has created serious concerns about the capability of existing institutions to govern important societal outcomes associated with UOGE. We present a conceptual framework for assessing key societal outcomes influenced by UOGE governance. In applying this framework to Pennsylvania, we discern certain institutional strengths that have allowed the Commonwealth to reap appreciable short‐term economic growth from rich resource endowments. We also find, however, that several institutional weaknesses have allowed costs externalized to the environment, public health, and community integrity to offset some proportion of those economic benefits. Likewise, we find that governance of UOGE in Pennsylvania has contributed to a bifurcated sociopolitical landscape wherein adversarial coalitions dispute the legitimacy of the industry and its governance.     

The devil we know and the angel that did not fly: An examination of devil/angel shift in twitter fracking “debates” in NY 2008–2018

Recent work has applied the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to examine narrative strategies in policy debates on social media platforms. We contribute to the literature by applying the NPF to fracking policy debates in New York using well-established Natural Language Processing tools, including sentiment analysis. We combine this computational approach with a qualitative hand-coding of pro- and antifracking Twitter influentials. This approach allows us to consider a much larger corpus of tweets over a much longer time frame than has been done thus far. We adapt and test NPF propositions related to the use of the devil/angel shift strategies before and after a major state-wide policy change, that is, a state-wide moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Overall, we find evidence for the use of the devil shift narrative strategy by the pro-fracking coalition aimed at the Governor prior to the moratorium. After the moratorium, the relative percentage of Tweets containing devil shift sentiments decreases as the pro-fracking coalition generally downshifts in its use of angel shift language without a corresponding increase in devil shift language, whereas, conversely, the anti-fracking coalition generally downshifts in its use of devil shift language without a general increase in angel shift language. When we shifted our analysis to Tweets containing fracking and the Governor, we found a similar postban decrease in devil shift language among anti-fracking users. Our findings offer lessons for using computational tools in the NPF as an approach to expand analytic ability and for the operationalization of concepts such as narrative strategies and policy entrepreneurs.     

国际原油价差中的政治因素

国际石油价格一直是影响各国经济发展的重要因素，同时石油定价作为一种经济问题也会威胁各国能源安全，从而转化成为政治问题。作为世界上两种最重要的基准油,西得克萨斯州轻质原油（WTI）和布伦特原油（Brent）是国际石油定价中的核心要素，两者价格从历史上来看基本趋平，但从2010年至今,这两种原油价格倒挂价差峰值大，持续时间长，从本质上改变了WTI 和Brent相互参照联动的关系。从历史上WTI和Brent四次价差拉大案例的发展变化，可以看出政治因素能够影响并左右国际石油定价的经济问题。从中国角度来看，WTI和Brent倒挂对中国来说是一把双刃剑，一方面，美国由于获得低油价优势制造成本下调，中国制造占相对优势的行业相对处于劣势；另一方面，美国WTI对油价的低估，将导致其他石油生产国更倾向于同中国合作，并且WTI影响力的下降给中国参与国际石油定价系统提供了更大的空间。     

Framing Trade‐offs: The Politics of Nuclear Power and Wind Energy in the Age of Global Climate Change

This article outlines recent debates over nuclear energy and wind farms in an age of growing concern about climate change. Proponents of these technologies have used “trade‐off” frames to promote these technologies in the face of current and potential opposition to them. This article examines the nature and limits of the trade‐off frames being used and their probability of success. We argue that using the language of trade‐offs is generally a suboptimal framing strategy: trade‐off frames remind the public of the costs associated with particular policies, and therefore play into the hands of policy opponents. However, policy advocates may turn to them when the costs of a technology are well known and are perceived as high. In such cases, trade‐off frames may help to justify controversial policy solutions. Like any frames, the trade‐off frames used in the debate over climate change solutions both illuminate and obscure the deeper issues involved in energy policy reform.     

Distributed Generation of Electricity: The Role of Academic Research and Advice in California’s “Clean DG” Policy Network

Deregulation and the combined threats of energy crises and global warming concern nations around the world, yet these issues continue to be addressed more directly by domestic regulatory systems than by international institutions. The present analyses of the integration of distributed sources of power generation (DG) into California’s electric utility system suggests that domestic environmental dilemmas with international repercussions provide an obvious entrée for global environmental policy specialists into the practice of environmental policy-making and law. Here I review current scholarship on policy networks that illuminates the contributions that technical and policy experts can make to such networks surrounding environmental issues. I then introduce the key members of California’s “clean DG” policy network that emphasizes the role of academic experts in this influential political system, and discuss how my own research has impacted the development of the state’s DG policy. I conclude that scholars are well positioned to observe and engage domestic and international environmental policy networks, and thereby also to influence environmental politics and law.     

Remunicipalization in German cities: contesting neo-liberalism and reimagining urban governance?

After two decades of widespread privatization, German municipalities have started to re-purchase privatized companies. At the same time, social movements are campaigning for remunicipalization, promoting it as a means of achieving greater urban democracy, though these objectives are often divergent from those of municipalities concerned with reasserting local state autonomy. With reference to Berlin, the paper discusses how remunicipalization campaigns might contribute to post-neo-liberal urban governance. It presents a preliminary frame for developing progressive remunicipalization movements centred on three elements of contestation: rejection of neo-liberalism; connection to other and broader struggles; and commoning as an alternative form of urban governance.     

基于HPLC的三芳甲烷类染料字迹人为老化的实验研究

目的对蓝色圆珠笔字迹在经过紫外光源老化后的独特特征进行研究,建立确认紫外灯照射的人为老化文件的方法。方法本文以蓝色圆珠笔字迹为研究对象,蓝色圆珠笔中的三芳甲烷类染料在紫外灯的照射下会吸收光子的能量加速其老化脱甲基的反应,通过适当的假设可以推导出其老化程度随时间变化的老化方程,由于目前紫外灯管几乎全部是线型结构,建立合适的坐标系,假设线型灯管能量分布均匀,且紫外线以球面波的形式传播出去,可以计算出纸面上任意一点的能量,通过纸张表面不同位置的三芳甲烷类染料的老化程度的不同来区别自然老化文件与紫外灯人为老化文件的不同。结果经过实验发现对于紫外灯人为老化文件来说甲基紫初始含量比上老化后含量的对数值与紫外灯对于该点的能量的辐出的比值为一个常数K,该K值稳定,浮动范围小,线性关系的置信度大于99%,可以认为两个参数之间存在显著地线性关系,可以证明对于老化方程的推导和能量密度分布函数的推导合理符合实际,对于自然老化文件来说则不存在这种规律。结论可以利用这种特殊的分布规律构建一个衡量这种分布的函数来定量地确认紫外灯照射的人为老化文件。     

Russia: A Country with an Unpredictable Past

Russia is a key player in the Kyoto process, and the fate of the Protocol itself heavily depends on future developments in the country, in particular in its energy sector. This article analyses the contradictory and complex relationships between carbon dioxide emissions, gas exports to Western Europe and the energy security of Russia. The paper reviews emerging trends in the energy sector of Russia that will have a long-term impact on these three parameters and assesses the possible influence of these trends on the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution in Russia. Proceeding from the latest developments in the Russian energy scene, the author tries to forecast how Russia will integrate into the international community in the energy sphere. The study concludes that gas export commitments to Europe will be met despite the serious problems in the domestic gas sector, that energy saving in Russia is the most feasible way of finding a compromise between the three parameters, and that enhancing the energy security of Russia might have rather controversial consequences for Europe.     

21世纪日本对外能源战略

本文依据关于日本能源方面的新数据,揭示了日本能源进口、利用效率、能源结构和战略储备等新情况。阐述了日本的新国家能源战略,及其基于这一战略的对外能源战略和能源外交。分析日本实行对能源生产国家进行大规模能源合作与国际能源协调的外交政策。提出了包括实现能源来源多元化、加强与传统油气重点地区及国家关系等在内的日本国际能源战略五大方向。并对日本的国际能源战略的动机、效果和战略的恰当与否进行了深入评析。     

空调梯级能源利用的分析与探讨

本方案充分利用发电机余热来达到空调节能的目的,实现能源梯级利用。可大幅度节省运行费用,均衡能源结构,削减夏季电力峰值,填补夏季燃气谷值,减少公用事业投资,属合理用能环保设备,被能源专家大力提倡。