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UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Fractured Politics: The Evolution of Oil and Gas Well Stimulation Regulation in California Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9jz0q3zj Author Dorr, Adam John Publication Date 2017 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Fractured Politics: The Evolution of Oil and Gas Well Stimulation Regulation in California A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning by Adam John Dorr 2017 © Copyright by Adam John Dorr 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Fractured Politics: The Evolution of Oil and Gas Well Stimulation Regulation in California by Adam John Dorr Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Susanna B. Hecht, Chair California has been an oil and gas state throughout its history. In the latter half of 19th Century and first half of the 20th Century, hydrocarbon extraction helped define both Californian prosperity and the early promise of the West. Many decades later, the Energy Act of 2005 helped to revitalize domestic oil and gas production by exempting a suite of new “enhanced recovery techniques” for well stimulation, commonly referred to as “fracking”, under major federal environmental regulations. This dissertation research engages the subsoil political ecology of California’s petroleum sector in order to explain how well stimulation regulation evolved in California following the rapid deployment of fracking technology across the country that ii triggered a decade of “Shale Revolution” beginning in 2006. Well stimulation in California represents a case study of the intensely politicized and contested evolution of extractive regimes and their environmental governance at subnational scales in the wake of disruptive technological change. The embedded single-case design employed in this research targets two units of analysis: regulation and frames. Regulation is analyzed using Governance and Political Economy Analysis to assess the structural, institutional, and stakeholder dynamics of California’s oil and gas sector, while frames are analyzed using Frame Analysis of news media and semi-structured open-ended interviews to examine how discourse coalitions construct narratives with which to advance their agendas. This dissertation research contributes to the academic literatures relating to energy systems and their sociotechnical transitions by situating the case of well stimulation regulation in California within the substantive, theoretical, and philosophical debates surrounding the environmental governance of extraction. iii The dissertation of Adam John Dorr is approved. Paul M. Ong Randall D. Crane Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. Susanna B. Hecht, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 iv For my grandparents and parents who led the way, for my wife who travelled with me, and for my children so they may follow. v Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. x Acronyms ..................................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement ...................................................................................................................... 2 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 4 Dissertation Structure.................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 2. Background ................................................................................................................... 7 The Shale Revolution .................................................................................................................. 7 Enhanced Recovery Techniques, Well Stimulation, and Fracking ........................................... 12 Perforating............................................................................................................................. 16 Waterflooding ....................................................................................................................... 24 Chemical Flooding ................................................................................................................ 26 Hydraulic Fracturing ............................................................................................................. 30 Acidizing ............................................................................................................................... 34 Thermal ................................................................................................................................. 35 Gas Injection ......................................................................................................................... 36 Directional Drilling ............................................................................................................... 36 Well Completion and Flowback ............................................................................................... 40 Environmental Impact ............................................................................................................... 42 Geographic Footprint ............................................................................................................ 43 Air Pollution.......................................................................................................................... 45 Water Pollution, Soil Contamination, and Waste Management ........................................... 46 Noise Pollution...................................................................................................................... 50 Water and Resource Use ....................................................................................................... 52 Induced Seismicity ................................................................................................................ 54 Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change ................................................................. 56 Chapter 3. Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 59 Political Ecology ....................................................................................................................... 59 Political Ecology of the Subsurface ...................................................................................... 63 Political Ecology of Fracking ............................................................................................... 65 Adaptive Governance................................................................................................................ 69 Anticipatory Governance .......................................................................................................... 72 vi Sociotechnical Transitions ........................................................................................................ 74 Media Framing .......................................................................................................................... 77 Framing Fracking .................................................................................................................. 80 Chapter 4: California Historical Context ...................................................................................... 82 Pre-History and Early Years of Oil and Gas in California ....................................................... 82 Drilling for Oil .......................................................................................................................... 87 The Standard Model .................................................................................................................. 91 Natural Gas ............................................................................................................................... 94 California Begins Producing Oil ............................................................................................. 100 New Petroleum Products for New Markets ............................................................................ 107 The Los Angeles City Oil Field .............................................................................................. 108 Oil Beyond the Los Angeles and Ventura Fields .................................................................... 112 The Monterey Shale Formation .............................................................................................. 122 Tidelands and Offshore Oil ..................................................................................................... 126 The Santa Barbara Oil Spill of 1969 ....................................................................................... 131 Natural Gas in California ........................................................................................................ 138 Enhanced Recovery Techniques in California .......................................................................
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