certain respects, the retirees were cut in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt: they tried to further his mission to protect public land not for pristine wilderness but for the benefit of future generations. The principle of conservation has a longer history in Pennsylvania than almost anywhere else in America. The nineteenth-century movement arose out of

The unknown realities of drilling for shale gas seemed preferable to the familiar toll coal mining levied.

Exploiting energy often involves exploiting people. In Amity and Prosperity, as elsewhere, resource extraction has long fed a sense of marginalization and disgust, both with companies that undermine the land and with the urbanites who flick on lights without considering the miners who risk their lives to power them. Today, the fracking boom has rei

The problem wasn’t natural gas. It was excessive regulation. Every time Clark had to give a pig an antibiotic shot, the law now required that he have a veterinarian write a prescription. That was fifty dollars per farm call, plus the cost of the medication. What really burned Clark up, however, wasn’t just the cost of the vet; it was the fact that

It has also brought with it the promise of energy independence and injected much-needed cash into struggling places. Yet it has fractured communities, dividing those making money from those whose water, air, and health are threatened.

There was also something innately American—befitting the libertarian ethos that individualism was the root of success—in the new oil and gas wealth that sprang from the ground.

Coal was exempted from most federal regulation, including the 1972 Clean Water Act and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act. (For the 2005 Energy Act, Vice President Dick Cheney successfully lobbied to exempt the fluids used in fracking from these same regulations. This was the “Halliburton loophole,” which gave the industry much of the immunity from w

Rural citizens lived alongside industry for generations, taking jobs and small payouts for mineral leases. Often, they acquired a sophisticated understanding of property and mineral rights, becoming well versed in the history and value of what lay beneath their feet. This arrangement also helped people remain on their land long after farming was pr

If Range could get what they wanted from others, the company might not need their land. So, reluctantly, she signed. By 5:00 p.m., they were back in the freezing parking lot, unsure they’d done the right thing.