Digging Deeper: Examining Oil and Gas Violations in Pennsylvania From 2010 to 2022

Nurun Naher, Joseph A. Aistrup, Jonathan M. Fisk, Adam P. Mayer and John C. Morris

Social Science Quarterly, 2025, vol. 106, issue 6

Abstract: Objective This study assesses the factors associated with the identification of oil and gas violations as reported by street‐level bureaucrats, for example, oil and gas inspectors. Findings, we suggest, contribute to broader debates about regulatory compliance and environmental governance. Methods To accomplish the above, we built a novel dataset of over 300,000 oil and gas inspectors conducted in Pennsylvania between 2010 and 2022 along with a range of theoretically relevant independent variables. Data were then analyzed using multinomial logistic regression, to assess how inspection type, previous year's violations, governor's political party, well type, and resource availability shape the likelihood of an inspector identifying a violation. Results Results demonstrate that inspection type, compliance history, political factors, and resource availability increase the likelihood of identifying a violation. We should note, however, that effects differed in magnitude and across violation types. Conclusions Our results offer a new avenue to understand environmental governance and provide additional evidence how the context of enforcement shapes related outputs. In the case of oil and gas, findings indicate that political, site‐level, institutional, and resource factors interact to shape administrative outcomes.

Date: 2025
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