Daniel J. Soeder – författare

The Fossil Fuel Revolution: Shale Gas and Tight Oil describes the remarkable new energy resources being obtained from shale gas and tight oil through a combination of directional drilling and staged hydraulic fracturing, opening up substantial new energy reserves for the 21st Century. The book includes the history of shale gas development, the technology used to economically recover hydrocarbons, and descriptions of the ten primary shale gas resources of the United States. International shale resources, environmental concerns, and policy issues are also addressed. This book is intended as a reference on shale gas and tight oil for industry members, undergraduate and graduate students, engineers and geoscientists.

This book provides a systematic scientific approach to the understanding of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) as a hydrocarbon extraction technology and its impact on the environment. The book addresses research from the past decade to assess how fracking can affect air, water, landscapes and ecosystems, and presents the subject in the context of the history of fracking and shale gas development in the United States, describing what is known and not known about environmental impacts, and the broader implications of fossil energy use, climate change, and technology development. In 9 chapters, the author lays out how and why hydraulic fracturing was developed, what driving forces existed at the beginning of the so-called "shale revolution", how success was achieved, and when and why public acceptance of the technology changed. 

The intended audience is scientific people who are concerned about fracking, but perhaps do not know all that much about it.  It is also intended for lay people who would be interested in understanding the technical details of the process and what effects it might or might not be having on the environment.  The book is written at a level that is both understandable and technically correct. A further goal is to give some useful insights even to experienced petroleum geologists and engineers who have been doing fracking for many years.   

The second edition of this book updates some of the progress in clean energy and climate tech that has been made since the initial publication in 2022 and adds new material that was not available earlier, including information on energy from hydrogen, recent developments in geothermal technology, and progress on carbon dioxide removal.  It also discusses changes in international climate policies, including a greater focus on loss and damage in the Global South and some restructuring of carbon offset economics in both North America and Europe.

The objective of this book is to help the average, concerned reader better understand the links between fossil fuel, greenhouse gas, and climate change in a clear, explanatory format.  It avoids sensationalism and politics, using plain language to explain the details of the science, how the science works, and how we know what we know.  The book is referenced throughout with footnotes.  It describes the history of fossil fuels, why fossil fuel combustion products are a problem, and what must be done to address the impacts on climate.  Details include a number of energy engineering solutions to replace fossil fuels with renewable, clean energy, and information about a technology called geoengineering that can cool the planet and directly remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Many people are pessimistic about the future and prepared to give up on addressing climate change.  This book strives to maintain hope that humanity can and must solve this and other environmental problems.  The climate crisis was caused by humans, and it can be addressed with human engineering.  Responsible discussions by informed readers with their political leaders are a pathway for implementing solutions to climate change.