Shale Boom

Diana Davids Hinton's Shale Boom is a gem of a book about the business, technology, politics, and environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” for oil and gas. Since the beginning of the boom in the early 2000s, fracking has doubled U.S. oil and gas production, reshaping global energy markets in the process. While much has been written about fracking as a national phenomenon, Hinton brings the story back to where it all started in the Barnett Shale underlying Fort Worth, Texas. Shale Boom adds to Hinton's reputation as one of the most distinguished historians of Texas oil by giving us the first deeply researched history of the latest chapter of the state's colorful relationship with this industry. During the height of the 2005–2008 Barnett shale boom, Texas energy companies leased and drilled “under anything and everything” in the Fort Worth area, including the Fort Worth Zoo, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the runways of the Dallas–Fort Worth Airport (p. 91). Hinton uses a range of government documents, periodicals, court cases, and consulting reports, along with interviews of key actors, to reconstruct the many dramas that attended this drilling frenzy

Boom · Drilling · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics · Hydraulic fracturing · Management · Oil boom · Oil shale · Petroleum engineering · Petroleum industry · Political science · Reputation · Shale oil · Waste management · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and Natural History · Engineering · Environmental Engineering · History · Law