Coal, Natural Gas, “Other Material,” and Whiskey: Hydrofracturing Country, USA
Georgia Review FAll 2018
“Three years ago these georgic acres, like so many others in southwestern Pennsylvania, were transformed into the site of a hydrofracturing operation that extracts methane (natural gas) from deep underground shales. The official name of this site, printed on a sign along the road, is Gotham City. It occupies a knoll four hundred feet from my parents’ bedroom. . . .”
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Hydrofracturing America in Gotham City and Scenery Hill
Blue mountain center commons spring 2019
“This geographical pattern is hardly new; it’s been evident for two centuries in Appalachia, and may be as old as civilization. The urban core enjoys the race, the regatta, and the parade of moral virtue, not to mention the infusion of capital and cheap energy, while the rural periphery, site of the resources themselves, suffers the bizarre illnesses, threats of arrest, and all the other . . .”