Walter Brasch’s critically-acclaimed book, Fracking Pennsylvania, is now in its second edition.
Although the book’s focus is Pennsylvania, the center of the Marcellus Shale, it looks at what fracking is, and its impact and effects throughout the country, says Morris Stone, editor-in-chief of Greeley & Stone, Publishers.
The Midwest Book Review says Fracking Pennsylvania “should be a core addition to all community and academic libraries.” Karen Feridun, one of the leaders of the anti-fracking movement, says the book “is packed with information everyone living in any area being drilled or likely to be drilled needs to know.” EcoWatch says the book should be required for all environmental ethics courses. Chuck Brown, editor of Common Sense 2, says, “the fact that Dr. Brasch is careful in his fact-checking does not mean he lacks aggressiveness in the pursuit of wrong-doing.” The Gettysburg Times says the 466-page book is “painstakingly researched and readable, a narrative worth reading by fracking supporters, opponents and anyone who reports on the subject.”
The new edition, says Brasch, has 70 percent more content than the first edition, twice as many photos, and is current to 2014. Stone says because of the acceptance of the first edition and the substantial increase in information about fracking’s effects, his company expedited the entire process to allow the latest information, while compressing the usual 9-15 month time-span between manuscript acceptance and publication.
In addition to updating all chapters, Brasch wrote five new chapters. Among them are: “Fracking Academic Integrity,” which looks at schools that allow fracking on their campuses and which also conduct—“often for questionable motives, and with grant money from the industry” says Brasch—research into fracking that may reflect industry bias.
Other new chapters include: “The Revolving Door,” which looks at industry professionals who take jobs with governmental regulators and then return to the industry, often at better salaries; “Fracking in 30 Frames Per Second,” which looks at the media coverage of the fracking issue; and “The People Push Back.” Brasch says that this 65-page chapter “may be my favorite one” because it looks at the vast and expanding anti-fracking movement throughout the country.
Brasch has also updated all chapters that explore the connections between politicians and the industry, and environmental and health effects of fracking, with new information about the effects upon both residents and workers. “Even those who don’t live near a well pad can be adversely affected if they live near a railroad, a major highway, or a river,” says Brasch. “Air, ground, and water pollution don’t respect state borders,” he says. Further, “There has been a significant increase in train derailments, with explosions and both air and ground pollution,” says Brasch, who notes that most of the tanker cars are not structurally capable of handling the fracked oil from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota, but which cut through middle America on their way to the Atlantic and Gulf refineries and ports.
He has also expanded his chapters about fracking’s effects upon wildlife and the nation’s agricultural/food supply.
Another problem he explores is that fossil fuel is finite. “Dinosaurs are no longer willing to give up their lives, just so Americans can have fuel that pollutes the atmosphere and leads to an acceleration of global warming,” says Brasch. His chapter about renewable energy sources has been expanded considerably.
Dr. Brasch has been an award-winning journalist more than four decades, working as a reporter and editor in newspapers, magazines, and radio; and as a writer-producer in television and multimedia production. He calls himself “a ’60s activist who never retired.” He is emeritus professor of mass communications from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
Fracking Pennsylvania is available from Greeley & Stone at a 30 percent discount; and from amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and independent bookstores.