Frackopoly: The Battle for the Future of Energy and the Environment

by Wenonah Hauter

Overview

“The definitive story on how big oil and gas corporations captured our political system . . . and the growing grassroots movement to retake our democracy” (Mark Ruffalo).
 
Over the past decade a new and controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, has rocketed to the forefront of US energy production. With fracking, millions of gallons of water, dangerous chemicals, and sand are injected under high pressure deep into the earth, fracturing hard rock to release oil and gas.
 
Wenonah Hauter, one of the nation’s leading public interest advocates, argues that the rush to fracking is dangerous to the environment and treacherous to human health. Frackopoly describes how the fracking industry began; the technologies that make it possible; and the destruction and poisoning of clean water sources with the release of harmful radiation from deep inside shale deposits, creating what the author calls “sacrifice zones” across the American landscape.
 
The book also examines the powerful interests that have supported fracking, including leading environmental groups, and offers a thorough debunking of its supposed economic benefits. With a wealth of new data, Frackopoly is an essential and riveting read for anyone interested in protecting the environment and ensuring a healthy and sustainable future for all Americans.
 
“A passionate history and critique of the energy industry, from Standard Oil to Enron . . . . [A] journalistic exposé of fracking outrages in which aggressive entrepreneurs in pursuit of profits wreak havoc on the land and poison the water.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“A truly powerful manifesto about one of the greatest environmental fights on our planet today—from one of its greatest champions!” —Bill McKibben, environmentalist and author of Oil and Honey

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620970072
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	06/07/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	695,490
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Wenonah Hauter is the executive director of Food & Water Watch, a D.C.-based watchdog organization focused on corporate and government accountability relating to food, water, and fishing. She has worked and written extensively on food, water, energy, and environmental issues at the national, state, and local levels. She owns a working farm in The Plains, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction 1

1 In the Beginning … 17

2 Setting the Stage 27

3 The Natural Gas Heist 34

4 Seeking the Roots of the Frackopoly 42

5 The Frackopoly Comes to Power 58

6 The Road to Ruin 66

7 Mitchell Makes a Fortune 83

8 Devon: Big Fish Polluting a Small Pond 94

9 Chesapeake Energy: High-Roiling Fracking Drama 107

10 When Will the Bakken Boom Go Bust for Good? 118

11 Poisonous Legacy in Wyoming 129

12 Politics, Betrayal, and Broken Communities 138

13 Sacrifice Zones in the Keystone State 151

14 Not a Drop Left to Drink 161

15 The Real Cost of Fracking Infrastructure 172

16 Exxon: More Powerful Than Ever 185

17 The Climate Change Heist 197

18 Pollution Trading: A Shell Game 207

19 Hard-Fought Victory in New York 227

20 The Ban Movement Grows, Stretching Coast to Coast 239

21 A Global Movement to Ban Tracking 260

22 The Way Forward 270

Notes 277

Index 347

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Frackopoly:
“[M]eticulously researched…a page-turner. Hauter describes what could be metaphorically portrayed as a pit of fornicating vipers — and fracking is their progeny. If Hauter had written this as a novel using the same characters, countries and global intrigue, it would quickly become an international bestseller and a miniseries would soon follow. She describes bigger-than-life captains of industry and colorful small-time scoundrels who play the system for their own gain. There are secret meetings and global conspiracies. There are also compelling tales of 'the little guy' fighting in the face of overwhelming odds.”
—National Catholic Reporter

“Hauter delivers a passionate history and critique of the energy industry, from Standard Oil to Enron ... [A] journalistic exposé of fracking outrages in which aggressive entrepreneurs in pursuit of profits wreak havoc on the land and poison the water.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"A truly powerful manifesto about one of the greatest environmental fights on our planet today—from one of its greatest champions!"
—Bill McKibben, environmentalist and author of Oil and Honey

"Real life anti-fracking superhero Wenonah Hauter delivers the definitive story on how big oil and gas corporations captured our political system and schemed to frack America—and the growing grassroots movement to retake our democracy and protect our planet."
—Mark Ruffalo, actor, director, and advisory board member of Americans Against Fracking

"Even though I have lived every chapter of this book, from beginning to end, I couldn't, as a reader, put it down. What makes Frackopoly so riveting is not the economic evidence, public health data, and the political analysis—although that's all here, too—but the brilliance of the author as the teller of this tragic-yet-hopeful tale. Wenonah Hauter is that rare narrator—a gifted writer and an environmental leader with a box seat in the public arena. A must-read for all who care about climate change, democracy, clean water, breathable air, and energy policy. Which is to say, all of us. Read this book and let your eyes be opened to the hoodwinking of America by the fracking industry."
—Sandra Steingraber, biologist and author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment

"At this critical juncture in human history, Frackopoly is a must-read. Rich in history and science, it allows us to understand how we've got to this point and gives us the courage to continue the fight. Wenonah Hauter and Food & Water Watch were essential in legitimizing the call to 'ban fracking' across the United States. Her book is a powerful account of that vital necessary struggle and where we have to go from here."
—Josh Fox, director of Gasland and How to Let Go of the World (and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change)

Praise for Wenonah Hauter's Foodopoly:
"Excellent."
—Mark Bittman, The New York Times

"Foodopoly is politically brave—not just naming names in the agri-industrial complex, but pushing us to think more deeply about the politics and economics that dictate our diets beyond our own roles as shoppers and eaters."
—San Francisco Chronicle

"A meticulously researched tour de force."
—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2016-04-30
An angry polemic on fracking and the importance of "leaving fossil fuels in the ground and reorienting the production and use of electricity."Older readers grew up learning that America was running out of fossil fuel. Then, a decade ago, it wasn't. Now there's a glut, and gasoline is cheap. Most readers are aware of one of the primary reasons: fracking, a process in which sand, chemicals, and water are forced under pressure into rock formations deep underground, extracting vastly more oil and natural gas than traditional drilling. Fracking produces earthquakes and greenhouse gases, uses immense amounts of water, and spreads chemicals widely into aquifers. Hauter (Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America, 2012), executive director of Food & Water Watch, an environmental watchdog organization, delivers a passionate history and critique of the energy industry, from Standard Oil to Enron, before concentrating on recent decades. Most chapters are journalistic exposés of fracking outrages in which aggressive entrepreneurs in pursuit of profits wreak havoc on the land and poison the water. Victims get little help from corrupt local officials or feeble environmental regulators. Lawsuits sometimes succeed but not always. Hauter reminds readers that Democratic as well as Republican administrations consider achieving energy independence vital to American national security. It trumps environmentalism. In the final chapters, the author explores the worldwide opposition to fracking. It's a dismal fact that where oil and gas dominate economies (Russia, the Middle East), opposition barely exists. But it thrives elsewhere. France has banned fracking, but it has almost no petroleum reserves. America mirrors this disparity. Anti-fracking has won in New York but accomplished little in Texas. There is no question where Hauter's sympathies lie, and her grim litany of greed, corruption, and environmental damage may stir activists to action but deeply discourage general readers.

Kirkus Reviews