Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T10:54:28.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 January 2022

Shanti Gamper-Rabindran
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Get access

Summary

America faces an energy dilemma – continue down the path of oil and gas drilling or diversify to greater shares of renewable energy. The shale boom in the twenty-first century propelled America to become the largest crude oil producer in the world and a net exporter of natural gas. However, the shale bust from 2014 to 2016 prompted renewed debate on America’s pathway. For decades, successive presidents from Nixon to Obama vowed to end America’s addiction to oil. In reality, federal and state governments granted numerous privileges to the oil and gas sector in exchange for securing energy supply, jobs and tax revenue. In 2017, President Trump took office and launched his “America First Energy Plan,” which expanded oil and gas extraction, facilitated the buildout of oil and gas infrastructure, and hacked away at regulations aimed to protect health, the environment and the climate. The Trump administration’s multipronged actions to favor the oil and gas industry, which went far beyond those of previous administrations, went largely unchecked by the 115th Congress that acquiesced and even abetted its actions. Understanding what the administration did and how it was able to undertake such actions is the first step towards resetting America’s energy and environmental paths.

Type
Chapter
Information
America's Energy Gamble
People, Economy and Planet
, pp. 1 - 14
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Mayfield, E. N., Cohon, J. L., Muller, N. Z., Azevedo, I. M. L. and Robinson, A. L.. “Cumulative Environmental and Employment Impacts of the Shale Gas Boom.” Nature Sustainability 2, no. 12 (2019): 11221131.Google Scholar
Gamper-Rabindran, S., ed. The Shale Dilemma: A Global Perspective on Fracking and Shale Development. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018.Google Scholar
Finkel, M. L., ed. The Human and Environmental Impact of Fracking: How Fracturing Shale for Gas Affects Us and Our World. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2019.Google Scholar
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Report (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2017).Google Scholar
Legere, L. and Litvak, A.. “PA Faces New Wave of Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 5, 2020.Google Scholar
Fractracker Alliance. “Abandoned Wells in Pennsylvania.” Fractracker.org, August 8, 2019.Google Scholar
Energy Information Administration. EIA Adds New Play Production Data to Shale Gas and Tight Oil Reports. Principal contributors: Jack Perrin and Emily Geary (February 15, 2019). www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38372.Google Scholar
Energy Information Administration. US Crude Oil Production Grew 11% in 2019, Surpassing 12 Million Barrels Per Day. Principal contributor: E. Geary (March 2, 2020). www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=43015.Google Scholar
Brown, S. P. A. and Yucel, M. K.. The Shale Gas and Tight Oil Boom: US States’ Economic Gains and Vulnerabilities. Council on Foreign Relations Report (Washington, DC: October 15, 2013). www.cfr.org/report/shale-gas-and-tight-oil-boom+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca.Google Scholar
Energy Information Administration. Natural Gas Explained: Natural Gas Imports and Exports (July 21, 2020). www.eia.gov/energyexplained/natural-gas/imports-and-exports.php.Google Scholar
Department of Environment. US Becomes World’s Largest Crude Oil Producer and Department of Energy Authorizes Short Term Natural Gas Exports (September 13, 2018). www.energy.gov/articles/us-becomes-world-s-largest-crude-oil-producer-and-department-energy-authorizes-short-term.Google Scholar
Czolowski, E. D., Santoro, R. L., Srebotnjak, T. and Shonkoff, S. B. C.. “Toward Consistent Methodology to Quantify Populations in Proximity to Oil and Gas Development: A National Spatial Analysis and Review.” Environmental Health Perspective 125, no. 8 (2017): 8600486015.Google Scholar
Tsvetkova, A. and Partridge, M. D.. “Economics of Modern Energy Boomtowns: Do Oil and Gas Shocks Differ from Shocks in the Rest of the Economy?Energy Economics 59 (2016): 8195.Google Scholar
McJeon, H., Edmonds, J., Bauer, N., Clarke, L., Fisher, B., Flannery, B. P., Hilaire, J. et al. “Limited Impact on Decadal-scale Climate Change from Increased Use of Natural Gas.” Nature 514, no. 7523 (2014): 482485.Google Scholar
Nixon, R.. “President Nixon’s Nationwide Radio Address on the National Energy Situation.” New York Times, January 20, 1974. www.nytimes.com/1974/01/20/archives/transcript-of-nixons-speech-on-energy-situation-a-call-for.html.Google Scholar
Carter, J.. “President Carter’s Address to the Nation about Energy Problems.” New York Times, April 19, 1977. www.nytimes.com/1977/04/19/archives/transcript-of-carters-address-to-the-nation-about-energy-problems.html.Google Scholar
Bush, G. W.. “State of the Union Address.” George W. Bush White House. January 31, 2006. https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/stateoftheunion/2006.Google Scholar
Obama, B. “Address to the Nation on the BP Oil Spill.” Barack Obama White House. June 15, 2010. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2010/06/16/president-obamas-oval-office-address-bp-oil-spill-a-faith-future-sustains-us-a-peopl.Google Scholar
Energy Information Administration. Short-Term Energy Outlook (February 11, 2020). www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/pdf/steo_full.pdf.Google Scholar
Wethe, D. and Crowley, K.. “Shale’s Bust Shows Basis of Boom: Debt, Debt and Debt.” Bloomberg News, July 23, 2020.Google Scholar
Dezember, R.. “Energy Producers Face Big Tab after Shale Bonanza.” Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2020.Google Scholar
Williams-Derry, C., Hipple, K. and Sanzillo, T.. Shale Producers Spilled $2.1 Billion in Red Ink Last Year (Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, Cleveland, Ohio: March 2020). https://ieefa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Shale-Producers-Spilled-2.1-Billion-in-Red-Ink-Last-Year_March-2020.pdf.Google Scholar
Frazin, R. “Trump Floats Funding for Oil after Historic Market Loss.” The Hill, April 2, 2020.Google Scholar
Gelzinis, G., Madowitz, M. and Vijay, D.. The Fed’s Oil and Gas Bailout Is a Mistake: Financial Stability, Public Funds, and the Planet Are at Risk (Center for American Progress, Washington, DC: July 31, 2020).Google Scholar
Dlouhy, J. A.. “‘Stealth Bailout’ Shovels Millions of Dollars to Oil Companies.” Bloomberg News, May 15, 2020.Google Scholar
Gamper-Rabindran, S.. “Fracked Communities and Taxpayers: Shale Economics in the US and Argentina.” In Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics, edited by Sowers, J., VanDeveer, S. and Weinthal, E.. Oxford University Press, 2021. Online.Google Scholar
Trump, D. J.. Executive Order on Accelerating the Nation’s Economic Recovery from the COVID-19 Emergency by Expediting Infrastructure Investments and Other Activities. D. J. Trump White House. June 4, 2020. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/eo-accelerating-nations-economic-recovery-covid-19-emergency-expediting-infrastructure-investments-activities.Google Scholar
Environmental Integrity blog and tracker, https://environmentalintegrity.org; Harvard Environmental and Energy Law tracker, https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/regulatory-rollback-tracker/; Trump on Earth podcast, www.npr.org/podcasts/512656404/trump-on-earth.Google Scholar
Congressional Research Service. The US Coal Industry: Historical Trends and Recent Developments. Report by M. Humphries. Report R44922 (August 18, 2017).Google Scholar
Elliott, R.. “Trump’s Promise to Revive Coal Thwarted by Falling Demand, Cheaper Alternatives.” Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2020.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Shanti Gamper-Rabindran, University of Pittsburgh
  • Book: America's Energy Gamble
  • Online publication: 06 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039567.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Shanti Gamper-Rabindran, University of Pittsburgh
  • Book: America's Energy Gamble
  • Online publication: 06 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039567.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Shanti Gamper-Rabindran, University of Pittsburgh
  • Book: America's Energy Gamble
  • Online publication: 06 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039567.001
Available formats
×