Shale Boom: The Barnett Shale Play and Fort Worth by Diana Davids Hinton (review)

Diana Davids Hinton has written an interesting, informative book about the origins of the shale revolution and its impacts on the region surrounding Fort Worth. She brings to this work a keen understanding of her topic drawn from a lifetime of research and writing about the Texas oil industry. She makes good use of interviews with numerous insiders in the oil industry, information about federal and state regulatory agencies, and numerous publications about shale gas and oil. As a welcome bonus, she frames her study with the general history of the development of oil and gas in North Texas.

Much of the first half of Shale Boom discusses the origins of modern fracking. The accounts of its technological origins are analyzed in greater detail in other published works, but Hinton’s history adds human dimensions with portraits of individuals active in the Barnett shale and activists in Fort Worth who oppose the expansion of drilling in the metropolitan area. Hinton reserves star billing for “the father of fracking,” George Mitchell, who earned this status with a determined seventeen-year crusade to create a fracking process capable of producing natural gas and oil from the Barnett shale. Hinton gives a brief account of “old-style” fracking in the 1940s before discussing the two key innovations, slickwater fracking and horizontal drilling, which helped create modern fracking. Mitchell invested considerable time and capital in his quest, but he was not alone. Federal government aid came in the form of subsidies for drilling deep gas wells after years of gas shortages led to the passage of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978. Additional government support came from the nonprofit Gas Research Institute, which conducted valuable research with funding from taxes on the interstate shipments of natural gas. Innovators from within Mitchell Energy and other companies also helped develop this technology, notably Devon Energy, whose aggressive application of directional drilling increased production.

The second half of Shale Boom moves out of the oil fields and into downtown Fort Worth, where “neighborhood drilling” began in earnest in 2006. After the realization that the sweetest spot to drill for gas might well be under the city, the rush to drill there began. This intensified questions about the social costs of fracking, including wastewater disposal and its possible ties to earthquakes; the flaring of natural gas; increased air and water pollution; and the noise, damaged streets, and crowding that altered the ambiance of Fort Worth, which many consider among the best cities in the state to live in or visit.

Hinton notes the significant economic benefits from fracking, including thousands of jobs; revenue for local, state, and national governments; and money for landowners from leases and royalties. Also impressive and important have been the benefits to the nation, which include far less dependence on imported oil; the reemergence of the United States as a leading global producer of oil and gas; a surplus of natural gas that has enabled the United States to become an exporter of instead of an importer; and a strong boost to the nation’s chemical industry.

Proponents of fracking tout these benefits, while their opponents decry its far-reaching environmental impacts. In a chapter entitled “Fear of Fracking,” the author sorts through the arguments on both sides. The self-interest of those working to reap the economic rewards of fracking collides with the fears of those who must live with its social and environmental costs. This chapter gives the reader a serious look into the ongoing conflict between the two points of view and a sense of the complexities that stand in the way of compromise.

America’s energy history offers many examples that uncertainty about a new technology can be expected in the early years of its application. When problems arise, uncertainty can become fear, slowing or even stopping development. The accident at Three Mile Island, for example, put nuclear power on hold; fatal explosions...