Essays on Split Estate in Energy Development

Taking advantage of randomly-assigned federal mineral rights, the first essay establishes the discount that mineral developers place on oil and gas leases with divided ownership. This discount is interpreted as an expectation of reduced profits as a result of transaction costs incurred in obtaining surface access. Results of 53 bimonthy federal oil and gas lease auctions in Wyoming between February 1998 and October 2006 are examined. Bidders discount split estate by 11 to 14 percent on average, but by as much as 24 percent for more expensive leases. Impacts of multiple ownerships and additional leasing stipulations are also explored. The second essay examines how conflict between surface and subsurface owners affects production from coalbed methane wells in Wyoming. Using well-level production data from 1987-2006, wells on federal minerals with private surface are compared to those on federal minerals with federal surface. A kernel matching estimator is used to control for selection of well sites on the basis of observable information. Delays in entry on split estate are found, but are not associated with reduced production after entry. Some support is found for strategic incentives firms face regarding property rights. One way coalbed methane production differs from traditional oil and gas extraction is in the large quantities of produced water. Surface discharge has proven to be a low-cost alternative but raises the possibility of externalities. In the third essay a unique dataset linking coalbed methane wells in Wyoming to water disposal permit violations is used to explore differences in environmental performance across severed and unified minerals. A propensity score matching model is used to control for the endogeneity of tenure. The results suggest that split estate wells using surface discharge have a higher number of violations, but the severity of those violations is not significantly different from those on unified estates

Theology, Religious Studies and the Secular Academy: Rhetoric and the Control of Meanings

The debates among academics over whether Religious Studies belongs within Faculties of Theology, the Social Sciences or The Humanities is a distraction from a more fundamental issue, which is the pervasive and largely unquestioned assumption that religious experiences, practices and institutions are universally distinct in kind and essentially separate from non-religious ones. Theologians and non-theologians alike have contributed to constructing a modern discourse on ‘religion’ and ‘religions’ that tacitly embeds its distinction from ‘non-religious’ or ‘secular’ practices. What is assumed as a commonplace is best understood as a rhetorical construction, which historically has had the ideological function of subverting a much older understanding of ‘religion’ that inhibited class mobility and the growth of capital- ist institutions. The most notable feature of the study of ‘religions’ lies in the tacitly distinct and embedded ‘secular’ or non-religious ground from which the study is assumed to be conducted. It was this wider rhetoric that made possible a basic part of the warp and woof of modern consciousness, the non-religious state and the ubiquitous arena of ‘secular politics’. Keywords: theology, religion, politics, secular, economics, state, sacred and profan

Regulatory Obsolescence Through Technological Change in Oil and Gas Extraction

Extraction of oil and gas from unconventional resources, recently enabled by technological innovations, revolutionized national and global markets. However, exploration and production still proceed under legacy regulations, mostly promulgated at the state level. The mismatch of modern production realities and historic regulatory structures creates opportunities for reducing conflicts that diminish economic value. This Article identifies regulations that originated under conventional extraction, and often enhance productivity in that setting, but create waste when applied to unconventional resources. Then, it identifies contractual solutions that have evolved as resource owners and extraction firms have adapted to new technologies. Contractual innovations help inform directions for regulatory reform

Diverging Roots: The Coming Insurrection’s Situationist Lineage

Over the past 60 years, there has been a resurgence of anarchism in Western Society. The revolutionary spirit has very much returned to the consciousness of popular culture, if it ever left at all. This ‘comeback’ of anarchist ideology has become progressively louder in the past decade, with the rise of cyberterrorist/hacktivist groups such as Anonymous and Lulzsec, the proliferation of political and governmental distrust following the 2008 recession, and the vocal increase in anti-fascist, anarcho-capitalist, post-left anarchism, eco-anarchism, and insurrectionary anarchist groups and activists such as The Invisible Committee. But many of these ideas haven’t been pulled from thin-air, or ancient ideological tomes that have gone out of fashion. In fact, most of them, particularly post-left anarchism and insurrectionary anarchism, have direct roots in the Situationist International of the middle of the twentieth century, pioneered by Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem. Despite these roots however, contemporary anarchist texts, such as The Invisible Committee’s The Coming Insurrection starkly diverges from their Situationist roots. This paper is an attempt to investigate Situationist roots of The Coming Insurrection through contrasting elements of The Invisible Committee’s ideal revolutionary group, the commune, to Guy Debord’s workers’ council, focusing on four distinct points of divergence – assembly, visibility, power, and individuality. These points of divergence illustrate the change in ideology from the Situationist era of the 60’s to the pre-financial crisis moment that The Invisible Committee is writing in

Assessing the accuracy of the Penn World Tables

The Penn World Tables are a data set used by many important, widely cited empirical studies on growth and international finance. It displays a set of national accounts time series covering developed and developing countries. Its expenditure entries are denominated in a common set of prices in a common currency so that real international quantity comparisons can be made over time and space using an interspatial extrapolation procedure. The Penn World Tables cover substantially more countries than those included in the individual benchmark year studies; The purpose of this study is to assess the accuracy of the price estimates given in the Penn World Tables. I have two important findings. First, I find that the procedure that the Penn World Tables use to estimate the price of non-benchmark countries is flawed. Second, I find that the price estimates of the Penn World Tables for benchmark countries, of a non-benchmark year, as well as non-benchmark countries may have errors. My findings have serious implications for empirical research in growth and development; Future research should address the accuracy issue to ensure reliable estimates of economic variables can be made

Making Room at the Table: Enhancing Public Participation in Economic Development Process

In 2011, Mohawk Valley EDGE became the lead organization for the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council (MVREDC), one of the ten Regional Councils established in New York State. Public participation has been stressed as an essential function of all Regional Council processes. But throughout the 2012 Regional Council process, the MVREDC and EDGE had difficulty in soliciting feedback in implementing the regional strategic plan. This study examines how EDGE can foster more public engagement in local economic development

Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization Suite (STOpS): Optimization of Multiple Gravity Assist Spacecraft Trajectories Using Modern Optimization Techniques

In trajectory optimization, a common objective is to minimize propellant mass via multiple gravity assist maneuvers (MGAs). Some computer programs have been developed to analyze MGA trajectories. One of these programs, Parallel Global Multiobjective Optimization (PaGMO), uses an interesting technique known as the Island Model Paradigm. This work provides the community with a MATLAB optimizer, STOpS, that utilizes this same Island Model Paradigm with five different optimization algorithms. STOpS allows optimization of a weighted combination of many parameters. This work contains a study on optimization algorithm performance and how each algorithm is affected by its available settings. STOpS successfully found optimal trajectories for the Mariner 10 mission and the Voyager 2 mission that were similar to the actual missions flown. STOpS did not necessarily find better trajectories than those actually flown, but instead demonstrated the capability to quickly and successfully analyze/plan trajectories. The analysis for each of these missions took 2-3 days each. The final program is a robust tool that has taken existing techniques and applied them to the specific problem of trajectory optimization, so it can repeatedly and reliably solve these types of problems

The epidemiology of injuries in Australian professional Rugby Union 2014 Super Rugby competition

BACKGROUND: Rugby union is a collision-based ball sport played at the professional level internationally. Rugby union has one of the highest reported incidences of injury of all team sports. PURPOSE: To identify the characteristics, incidence, and severity of injuries occurring in Australian professional Super Rugby Union. DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study. METHODS: The present study was a prospective epidemiology study on a cohort of 180 professional players from 5 Australian Super Rugby teams during the 2014 Super Rugby Union Tournament. Team medical staff collected and submitted daily training and match-play injury data through a secure, web-based electronic platform. The injury data included the main anatomic location of the injury, specific anatomic structure of the injury, injury diagnosis, training or match injury occurrence, main player position, mechanism of injury, and the severity of the injury quantified based on the number of days lost from training and/or competition due to injury. RESULTS: The total combined incidence rate for injury during training and match-play across all Australian Super Rugby Union teams was 6.96 per 1000 hours, with a mean injury severity of 37.45 days lost from training and competition. The match-play injury incidence rate was 66.07 per 1000 hours, with a mean severity of 39.80 days lost from training and competition. No significant differences were observed between forward- and back-playing positions for match or training injury incidence rate or severity. CONCLUSION: The incidence of injury for the present study was lower during match-play than has previously been reported in professional rugby union; however, the overall time loss was higher compared with previous studies in professional rugby union. The high overall time loss was due fundamentally to a high incidence of injuries with greater than 28 days’ severity