2 Introduction
had reclaimed the title of world’s largest producer. Just ten years earlier, most had expected the country’s decades-long decline in production to continue indefinitely and, with it, an ever-deepening reliance on energy imported from other continents. But things had changed. As I’ll describe over the course of this book, the U.S. oil and gas industry has, over the past decade or so, combined a suite of technological breakthroughs with incremental improvements that have pushed production to levels beyond what even the most optimistic forecaster would have dreamed. These innovations brought the industry to new heights, took it to new corners of the United States, and sparked controversies no one had anticipated. It was this revolution, the “shale revolution,” that had brought me to the Hilton Americas in Houston. CERAWeek was something of a culmination for me: a chance to meet some of the industry’s high rollers after spending years getting to know the small-timers of the oilfield and traveling the many back roads of the shale revolution.
IN THE OILFIELD My journey started in the summer of 2011. I was a graduate student at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and was spending the summer interning at the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (which has since been reorganized and is now known as the Department of Environmental Quality). While I was there, the legislature asked the agency to write a report on the potential for shale gas development in the state. I volunteered for the job and, despite my lack of experience with the oil and gas industry, was tasked with writing a portion of the report. As I began my research, two themes quickly emerged: one detailing a list of horror stories about the dangers of fracking and a second narrative about the glories of the American energy renaissance. As I learned more and began talking with friends about the myths and realities of fracking, I started to field an array of questions. At dinner parties, out having drinks with friends, and even over my first Christmas dinner with my soon-to-be mother- and father-in-law, I heard variations on the same few