A particular shale gas extraction practice known as hydraulic fracturing is of particular policy concern because of its often destructive nature to the environment. It can lead to liabilities from the destruction of the land, but also of the water. Comparatively in the US, there are many jurisdictions where the practice is outright banned, especially amongst those areas governed by politically more liberal coalitions. In China however, there is not the same level of coordination or regulation of the practice, ensuring that national policymakers have to consider the legal implication of the liability of what happens when the extraction has unintended consequences for the surrounding area. While the author notes that there are significant numbers of laws and regulations for this practice, and a broad spectrum of statues describing the outcome of liabilities, the spread-out nature of these laws allow for many of the grievances to go unsolved amongst environmental groups and individual citizens alike. Pairing this lack of overall strong regulatory schemes with the profits gained from the practices as a whole, there are significant numbers of detractors when it comes to the shale gas industry on a global scale. It is important to remember that it is often a long, slow march towards progress on these fronts. Mining coal has different types of liabilities and regulatory concerns compared to shale gas extraction, but it is important for policymakers to consider the impacts just as previous policymakers had to begin the process of regulating the highly-profitable mining industry.
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