WENONAH HAUTER DISCUSSES FRACKOPOLY WITH ED BEGLEY

Frackolopy: the Battle for the Future of Energy and the Enviornment (New Press)

Over the past decade, a new and controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed to the forefront of U.S. energy production. With fracking, millions of gallons of water, dangerous chemicals, and sand are injected under high pressure deep into the earth, fracturing hard rock to release oil and gas.

A history of the fracking industry, Frackopoly exposes how more than 100 years of political influence peddling facilitated the control of our energy system by a handful of corporations and financial institutions. It provides the public policy backstory and the history of deregulation that has turned our communities into sacrifice zones.

The book also examines the powerful interests that have supported fracking, including leading environmental groups, and looks at the growing movement to ban fracking and keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Praise for Frackopoly

“At this critical juncture in human history, Frackopoly is a must-read. Rich in history and science, it allows us to understand how we’ve got to this point and gives us the courage to continue the fight. Wenonah Hauter and Food & Water Watch were essential in legitimizing the call to ‘ban fracking’ across the United States. Her book is a powerful account of that vital necessary struggle and where we have to go from here.”—Josh Fox, director of Gasland and How to Let Go of the World (and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change)

“Real life anti-fracking superhero Wenonah Hauter delivers the definitive story on how big oil and gas corporations captured our political system and schemed to frack America—and the growing grassroots movement to retake our democracy and protect our planet.”—Mark Ruffalo, actor, director, and advisory board member of Americans Against Fracking

“Even though I have lived every chapter of this book, from beginning to end, I couldn’t, as a reader, put it down. What makes Frackopoly so riveting is not the economic evidence, public health data, and the political analysis—although that’s all here, too—but the brilliance of the author as the teller of this tragic-yet-hopeful tale. Wenonah Hauter is that rare narrator—a gifted writer and an environmental leader with a box seat in the public arena. A must-read for all who care about climate change, democracy, clean water, breathable air, and energy policy. Which is to say, all of us. Read this book and let your eyes be opened to the hoodwinking of America by the fracking industry.”—Sandra Steingraber, biologist and author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment

“A truly powerful manifesto about one of the greatest environmental fights on our planet today—from one of its greatest champions!”—Bill McKibben, environmentalist and author of Oil and Honey

“A gripping and encyclopedic survey of the fracking menace, from the rise of a fossil-fueled U.S. oligarchy to the growing global wave of hard-won fracking bans. Hauter skillfully reveals fracking’s twin legacy: ghost towns, poisoned and quaking landscapes, and a scorching atmosphere on the one hand—and a remarkable wave of courage, resistance, and rising community power on the other.””—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything andThe Shock Doctrine
Reviews

“Hauter delivers a passionate history and critique of the energy industry, from Standard Oil to Enron … [A] journalistic exposé of fracking outrages in which aggressive entrepreneurs in pursuit of profits wreak havoc on the land and poison the water.”– Kirkus Reviews

“If Hauter had written this as a novel using the same characters, countries and global intrigue, it would quickly become an international bestseller and a miniseries would soon follow. She describes bigger-than-life captains of industry and colorful small-time scoundrels who play the system for their own gain. There are secret meetings and global conspiracies…a page turner.”—National Catholic Reporter

Wenonah Hauter is an activist, author and progressive policy advocate. She is the founder and executive director of Food & Water Watch, an organization that, under her leadership, has fundamentally transformed the national debate about hydraulic fracturing (fracking), energy and the environment.

Inspired by the works of his Academy Award-winning father, Ed Begley Jr.became an actor. He first came to audiences’ attention for his portrayal of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the long-running hit television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six Emmy nominations. Since then, Ed has moved easily among feature, television and theatre projects.

Ed co-starred in the Woody Allen movie Whatever Works with Larry David, as well as the Seth Rogan/Judd Apatow film Pineapple Express, and a number of Christopher Guest films, including A Mighty Wind, Best In Show and For Your Consideration. Other feature film credits include Batman Forever, The Accidental Tourist and The In-Laws.