Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town

by Colin Jerolmack

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691241425
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/23/2022
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	530,857
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Colin Jerolmack is professor of sociology and environmental studies at New York University and the author of The Global Pigeon. He lives in New York City. Twitter @jerolmack

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Introduction. Land of the Freehold 1

Chapter 1 Billtown 28

Chapter 2 Boomtown 47

Chapter 3 The Racking Lottery 70

Chapter 4 My Land 88

Chapter 5 The Public/Private Paradox 105

Chapter 6 Indentured 126

Chapter 7 Unmoored 147

Chapter 8 Overruled 165

Chapter 9 Town and Country 187

Chapter 10 Our Land 221

Conclusion. Bust and Beyond 254

Notes 273

Index 305

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Never doubt that rural Americans truly love the land they inhabit—and as Colin Jerolmack makes clear in this fascinating account, that might be the basis for some productive, if sometimes awkward, environmentalism in the crucial years ahead.”—Bill McKibben, author The End of Nature

"A true tour de force, Up to Heaven and Down to Hell takes community ethnography to a whole new level. Embedding himself in a Pennsylvania town turned upside down by fracking, Colin Jerolmack spends time with people on all sides of the issue, giving everyone an honest hearing. The result is a deeply insightful on-the-ground account that reveals the climate crisis to be a crisis of community."—Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

"Honest, empathetic, and rich in insight, Up to Heaven and Down to Hell explores what happens when Americans of all political stripes are forced by circumstance to reconsider cherished beliefs about their land, their neighbors, and their government. To thrive in the global commons, we all need to do the same kind of rethinking. Colin Jerolmack's fine book shows the way."—Dan Fagin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation

"Engaging, engrossing, and beautifully written."—Stephanie A. Malin, author of The Price of Nuclear Power: Uranium Communities and Environmental Justice

"Jerolmack demonstrates why we can't fully understand the fracking controversy without considering how it complicates people's personal lives and their relations to the land, the law, and their neighbors. Rich in ethnographic detail and sparkling with insights, this book is destined to become a classic."—Robert Wuthnow, author of The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Small-Town America

"As different as we all are in situations, needs, and views, we hold the world in common. In this brilliant ethnography, Colin Jerolmack vividly highlights this basic environmental conundrum with his compelling account of the local conflicts over fracking in the countryside around Williamsport, Pennsylvania."—Michael Mayerfeld Bell, author of City of the Good: Nature, Religion, and the Ancient Search for What Is Right

Editorial Reviews

Finalist for the PROSE Award in Cultural Anthropology and Sociology, Association of American Publishers

"Honorable Mention for the Allan Schnaiberg Award, Environmental Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association"

From the Publisher

02/22/2021

Jerolmack (The Global Pigeon), an environmental studies professor at NYU, offers a dense and deeply reported study of the impact of fracking on the residents of Lycoming County, Pa. Sitting atop the Marcellus shale, which is believed to hold over 84 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Lycoming County has 832 wells. Jerolmack, who took a leave of absence from NYU to live in the county for eight months, describes the “public/private paradox” of fracking: some residents earn substantial royalties for leasing their property to gas companies, while the entire community suffers the consequences, including poisoned wells, destroyed roads, and noise pollution. Jerolmack details town hall meetings and interviews lessors, gas workers, and anti-fracking activists to explore the conflict between personal sovereignty and public good. He also delves into the history of land ownership, noting that early American laws extended property rights “up to Heaven and down to Hell,” and that only in the U.S. are private citizens granted exclusive mineral rights to their properties. As a result, Jerolmack argues, the fracking industry is poorly regulated by the U.S. government, leaving individual lessors and their communities little recourse when something goes wrong. Lay readers may be overwhelmed by the wealth of detail, but environmental activists and lawmakers will find much food for thought. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly