Shale Boom

Shale Boom applies Diana Davids Hinton’s careful research on the energy industry toward our current boom to develop the shale resource in the area of Fort Worth, Texas. Waning traditional reserves of petroleum led many geologists to forecast the end of fossil fuels in the early twenty-first century. Hinton accurately explains that “What turned dire forecasts upside down was the use of new Barnett Shale, and it has had immense national and global significance. The prophets of shortage did not foresee that” (p. 3). Hinton creates an even and effective story of this important moment in energy history without considering many of the larger implications or patterns that it suggests about consumer markets. Her story is an important one for many communities—particularly in the American West—that confront the energy question of the moment: To frack or not to frack? Although shale development continues in other portions of the United States, Hinton’s account focuses on the people and businesses of the Barnett formation. She makes modest efforts to discuss more widespread aspects of the industry’s development; readers, though, should understand that hers is a focused analysis of only the early years of the industry in Texas, beginning around 1990. With that caveat in mind, though, the technology and industrial organization for all shale development follows the patterns and practices begun in the incubator of the Barnett boom. To some extent, therefore, insights from Shale Boom can be applied to these other regions.

Boom · Economic shortage · Economics · Economy · Government (linguistics) · Oil shale · Petroleum industry · Resource (disambiguation) · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Engineering · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History of Science and Medicine · Philosophy