I Want In On That: Community-level Policies for Unconventional Gas Development in New York

摘要

We investigate geospatial and socio-demographic attributes that explain differences in community-level policies affecting unconventional gas development (UGD) in New York. We examine local policy decisions (i.e., municipal bans, moratoria, and pre-emptive resolutions supporting development) through ordered probit models and middle-inflated and zero-inflated ordered probits to account for communities without UGD policies and estimate a spatial ordered probit to address spatial correlations between communities' decisions. Our findings suggest that New York communities near Pennsylvania UGD are more likely to support UGD. Communities that are predominantly Democrat or have more citizens who have bachelor's degrees are more likely to adopt policies opposing UGD.