About this item
The rapid spread of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") has temporarily boosted US natural gas and oil production . . . and sparked a massive environmental backlash in communities across the country. The fossil-fuel industry is trying to sell fracking as the biggest energy development of the century, with slick promises of American energy independence and benefits to local economies. Snake Oil casts a critical eye on the oil-industry hype that has hijacked America's energy conversation. This is the first book to look at fracking from both economic and environmental perspectives, informed by the most thorough analysis of shale gas and oil drilling data ever undertaken. Is fracking the miracle cure-all to our energy ills, or a costly distraction from the necessary work of reducing our fossil-fuel dependence?.
About the Author
Richard Heinberg is the author of eleven books including: Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future (2013) The End of Growth: Adapting to our New Economic Reality (2011) Blackout: Coal, Climate, and the Last Energy Crisis (2009) Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines (2007) The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism and Economic Collapse (2006) Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World (2004) The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies (2003) He is Senior Fellow-in-Residence of the Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost Peak Oil educators. He has authored scores of essays and articles that have appeared in such journals as Nature, The Ecologist, The American Prospect, Public Policy Research, Quarterly Review, Z Magazine, Resurgence, The Futurist, European Business Review, Earth Island Journal, Yes!, Pacific Ecologist, and The Sun; and on web sites such as Alternet.org, EnergyBulletin.net, TheOilDrum.com, ProjectCensored.com, and Counterpunch.com.He has appeared in many film and television documentaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio's 11th Hour, and is a recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education.More information about Richard can be found on his website: richardheinberg.com
