Let’s Talk About ‘The Boom’

New Book Looks at How Fracking Changed Everything

Joel Salcido

Russell Gold, author of a new book on fracking, says that this drilling revolution is "transforming the United States."

If you ever talk about the surge in oil and gas drilling in Texas and the rest of the country by calling it a “boom,” you might upset someone in the oil and gas industry. That’s because if you call it a “boom,” that means at some point there’s going to be a “bust.”

So Wall Street Journal energy reporter Russell Gold may furrow a few brows in the industry with his new book, ‘The Boom: How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World.’

“This revolution is transforming the United States,” Gold writes. “To a remarkable extent, this once-obscure oil-field technique defines the nation’s economic and environmental future.” A hundred new wells are drilled and fracked every day, he writes.

Gold sat down with David Brown of KUT’s Texas Standard to talk about why this boom is different, and some lessons for the oil and gas industry going forward. Take a listen:

‘The Boom’ hits bookshelves (both virtual and real) this week.