Book of the Week: The Frackers

05 Aug 2014

This week I read The Frackers, recommended to me by a coworker. It is a good book that tells the background of the people who changed the energy equation in the United States through horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing. These people were risk takers chasing after oil and natural gas. They saw possibilities where other people previously wrote off. If they weren’t relentless in their pursuit of gas from shale, the technology wouldn’t haven’t advanced. The more promising something looks, the more people jump in and the faster things advance. Moonlighting I learned the term moonlighting came from the oil industry where people tried to dodge royalty payments by using patented technology in the middle of the night. Risks and Rewards The Frackers reminds me of what it means to be an American and what the American dream is. It is also the reason why people are not willing to tax the rich, because they hope to be rich someone day. You are never going to be rich if you don’t put your money on the line to take risks or take on debt.