By Sabina Deitrick and Ilia Murtazashvili
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2021
Pp. xii, 302. $32.95 hardcover
This is a volume of case studies that addresses the localized impact of fracking externalities and the ways in which governments address them. I provide some general initial observations before discussing the book specifically.
First, there is a bias in the way in which fracking has been examined in academic journals, the media, and politics. This background likely affects even the authors and their chapters in this volume, an issue that the editors do not address.
For many, fracking has been the enemy of the good. That is, it has freed up hydrocarbons, just at a time when climate change mitigation advocates have argued that the United States should be moving away from them. Wind and solar power sources are offered as alternatives. Low-cost natural gas has made this policy prescription more difficult. As a counter, national, state, and local politicians in some places have supported policies to ban hydrocarbons in energy use
