The impacts of natural gas drilling and other extractive industries have a direct connection to how well governments of resource-rich states can regulate the sector and ensure meaningful public participation in the process. This page will seek to explore the "politics of natural gas" in Ghana and the United States and hopefully provide some suggestions for a best practices model of good government reforms needed to ensure transparency and accountability as we continue along this path....
Natural Gas - A Good Government Paradox Across the Globe?
By Deanna Bitetti
The natural gas “gold rush” has intensified debates around the world over how government regulates the oil and gas industry and protects the health and well being of its residents. The debate pits those who see the industry as an engine for economic growth against those who fear that lax standards create a potential for natural disaster. Read more
The Illusive Windfall: the Natural Gas “Bubble”
By Deanna Bitetti
In Ghana as farmland is taken over to pave the way for the natural gas sector to move in, food productivity is decreasing while prices are increasing. At the same time as food prices are increasing a shortage in housing stock is causing housing prices to rise as well, make it harder for local inhabitants to live and work. Transportation and maintenance prices are rising and large income inequalities are creating massive wealth distribution effects within local areas. Other externalities are also creating problems in the Ghanian coastal areas- closest to the Jubilee Oil Field- that are often not monetarily accounted for when discussing the development possibilities associated with developing the natural gas sector. As we seek out this illusive windfall- so to speak- we must be cognizant about the many high risk factors in continuing quickly forward with natural gas extraction.
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