The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World

Fracking seemed like a dream come true ... now we knowGold paints a picture from the past, the time when President Obama and others were lured by the promise of golden treasure. Gold has not been in West Texas or any of the fracking plays.A criminal investigation in Pa. Marcellus Shale by Pa. Attorney General, alleging environmental crimes against an oil and gas company. “Flaring of methane gas at the well was so loud that it shook the walls of her home,” said a resident who has lived “three years of hell.” Earthquakes in Arkansas and Oklahoma and drinking water pollution are doom, not boom.Gold leaves no room for errors and promotes without reservations an irresponsible practice banned in Australia, the UK, and many European countries. Time has come for a U.S. ban on fracking.Update:Chesapeake Energy—which helped propel the shale gas revolution in the late 2000s with leading positions in the Marcellus, Barnett, and Haynesville shale basins—is now facing tough times trying to heal its balance sheet, on which US$9.7 billion in total debt weighs.The company is looking to improve its balance sheet and is evaluating multiple options to reduce debt and to become, finally, free cash flow positive next year.Update:At the time of its Chapter Eleven bankruptcy filing on June 28, 2020, its stock price stood at $2.99 a share.The BOOM was a loud noise from $9bn of debt.

Want to get an accessible introduction to "fracking" (short for hydraulic fracturing)? This should do nicely. This is not a technical tome--far from it. It is a well written book aimed at a general audience. If you want a solid scientific analysis, this is not the book for you. But, if you wish to get a sense of what is at stake, this would be quite useful.The author had family land in Pennsylvania in the Marcellus Shale region (a large pool of underground natural gas). This is a personal story of his effort to learn about fracking--its history, its positive economic effects, its effects on the environment, its effects on the land. One aspect of this work struck me as positive: it is a balanced work. Russell Gold, the author, does not take sides in an overt manner. By the end of this book, I felt that I had learned quite a bit about fracking as a technique and its effects (positive and negative).In the process, one also gets a sense of the major figures in the development of the technique, such as Aubrey McClendon. There were quite a few swashbucklers, like McClendon, who tried to develop their companies as rapidly as possible. Others were more cautious. The examination of a series of key figures humanizes the book, giving us a sense of the personal side of this issue.The final chapter tries to provide an even handed analysis of fracking and its effects. Whether the author succeeds will be up to the readers to decide.

For years I have lived right in the middle of the fracking business and never really knew what it was. One of my sons-in-law works in it and I still didn't know what it was. This book reveals the whole thing from Day One, naming names and pointing out where they went wrong and where they went right. There is some humor, some irony and a wealth of good story telling in the volume. Any Anywhere there is oil, even in YOUR backyard, there could be fracking which could make you a millionaire. You owe it to yourself and your heirs to read this book! ... besides, you'll have a lot of fun doing it!

I'm really glad I read this book - I don't know much about fracking but wanted to get a better sense of what it was and how it has transformed this country's energy outlook. This is a perfect book for people who want to learn more about the processes, personalities and politics behind fracking in the US. Would love to see more from this author.

If you know anything at all about the oil business, this book is not for you. It is written for someone who knows next to nothing about frac'ing.

As a Pennsylvanian I have been subjected to endless bulletin boards and radio ads touting the benefits of Range Oil and Chesapeake Oil and natural gas their companies extract. This well documented book is a must read for those interested in how the fracking boom came to be. The other side of the beneficent coin is terrifying indeed. Read it and weep.

Excellent source of information on the history of fracking and a few of it’s controversial personalities, along with a discussion of the benefits and problems related to fracking.

I enjoyed this book. It accomplished what I set out for which was a better understanding of modern fracking. The author gave a good inside perspective of how his parent interacted with the drilling companies. The book did dry up towards the end and the last chapters dragged and blurred together. Again the book gave me exactly what I was looking for with the education on fracking and the industry.

I read the Frackers by Gregory Zuckerman a couple of years ago and frankly this book covers most of the same ground. Its a classic pop-science-business book. Easy to read. Anecdotal stories with locals and famous characters alike. Mitchell, Aubrey McLendon, Harold Hamm, Chesapeake and so on get a lot of pages.There are things which this book covers better that The Frackers - notably some of the technical aspects on the fracking process covered better in this book. We really get to know who developed the ideas. The Boom is also better at taking a wider sweep of the economic landscape and the people who live in it. Russell Gold talks to people on the ground about how fracking has affected them in their personal lives. This is certainly the work of a reporter.Conversely, The Frackers probably dedicated more pages to a few individuals. There was a LOT on Aubrey Mclendon in The Frackers and frankly I skipped through most of what was familiar ground in The Boom.If you haven't read The Frackers, then this is a great book and arguably the better (or more concise) of the two. If you have read The Frackers, then unless you are dedicated to completing the energy reading list on Amazon you could probably skip it.

Good summary, but overly long and very chatty.

An excellent story of the huge boom in fracking that swamped America. The author, who was involved directly in rhat his parents land was to be fracked, tells an easy to follow story of the history, short, of fracking and the frackers involved in this boom.A good primer on fracking and a great story of the pioneers of fracking who fed the boom. Read in todays world, where fracking in America is deacreasing due to a glut, it is an eye opener.

I choose this rating because the author writes about a complex process in clear understandable words. It shows his experiences as a journalist, a Wall Street worker in a very human way. I think anyone interested in Shale Gas development should read this book..I'm not an expert in the matter but the book opened my eyes on this very actual and complex procwess.

this is part of our energy library. not the best book on fracking, but still a good one. it's fairly popular science but does a good job on the wider implications of shale oil and gas.