Up to Heaven and Down to Hell
Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A riveting portrait of a rural Pennsylvania town at the center of the fracking controversy
Shale gas extraction—commonly known as fracking—is often portrayed as an energy revolution that will transform the American economy and geopolitics. But in greater Williamsport, Pennsylvania, fracking is personal. Up to Heaven and Down to Hell is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet—whether or not to extract shale gas and oil from the very land beneath our feet—is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public's consent.
The United States is the only country in the world where property rights commonly extend "up to heaven and down to hell," which means that landowners have the exclusive right to lease their subsurface mineral estates to petroleum companies. Colin Jerolmack spent eight months living with rural communities outside of Williamsport as they confronted the tension between property rights and the commonwealth. In this deeply intimate book, he reveals how the decision to lease brings financial rewards but can also cause irreparable harm to neighbors, to communal resources like air and water, and even to oneself.
Up to Heaven and Down to Hell casts America’s ideas about freedom and property rights in a troubling new light, revealing how your personal choices can undermine your neighbors’ liberty, and how the exercise of individual rights can bring unintended environmental consequences for us all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jerolmack (The Global Pigeon), an environmental studies professor at NYU, offers a dense and deeply reported study of the impact of fracking on the residents of Lycoming County, Pa. Sitting atop the Marcellus shale, which is believed to hold over 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Lycoming County has 832 wells. Jerolmack, who took a leave of absence from NYU to live in the county for eight months, describes the "public/private paradox" of fracking: some residents earn substantial royalties for leasing their property to gas companies, while the entire community suffers the consequences, including poisoned wells, destroyed roads, and noise pollution. Jerolmack details town hall meetings and interviews lessors, gas workers, and anti-fracking activists to explore the conflict between personal sovereignty and public good. He also delves into the history of land ownership, noting that early American laws extended property rights "up to Heaven and down to Hell," and that only in the U.S. are private citizens granted exclusive mineral rights to their properties. As a result, Jerolmack argues, the fracking industry is poorly regulated by the U.S. government, leaving individual lessors and their communities little recourse when something goes wrong. Lay readers may be overwhelmed by the wealth of detail, but environmental activists and lawmakers will find much food for thought.