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.
