The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters

Everyone knew it was crazy to try to extract oil and natural gas buried in shale rock deep below the ground. Everyone, that is, except a few reckless wildcatters - who risked their careers to prove the world wrong.

Things looked grim for American energy in 2006. Oilproduction was in steep decline and natural gas washard to find. The Iraq War threatened the nationsalready tenuous relations with the Middle East.China was rapidly industrializing and competing forresources. Major oil companies had just about givenup on new discoveries on U.S. soil, and a new energycrisis seemed likely.

But a handful of men believed everything wasabout to change.

Far from the limelight, Aubrey McClendon,Harold Hamm, Mark Papa, and other wildcatterswere determined to tap massive deposits of oil andgas that Exxon, Chevron, and other giants had dismissedas a waste of time. By experimenting withhydraulic fracturing through extremely dense shalea process now known as frackingthe wildcattersstarted a revolution. In just a few years, they solvedAmericas dependence on imported energy, triggereda global environmental controversyand made andlost astonishing fortunes.

No one understands these mentheir ambitions,personalities, methods, and foiblesbetterthan the award-winning Wall Street Journal reporterGregory Zuckerman. His exclusive access enabledhim to get close to the frackers and chronicle theuntold story of how they transformed the nation andthe world. The result is a dramatic narrative trackinga brutal competition among headstrong drillers.It stretches from the barren fields of North Dakotaand the rolling hills of northeastern Pennsylvaniato cluttered pickup trucks in Texas and tense WallStreet boardrooms.

Activists argue that the same methods that arecreating so much new energy are also harming ourwater supply and threatening environmental chaos.The Frackers tells the story of the angry oppositionunleashed by this revolution and explores just howdangerous fracking really is.

The frackers have already transformed the economic,environmental, and geopolitical course ofhistory. Now, like the Rockefellers and the Gettysbefore them, theyre using their wealth and power toinfluence politics, education, entertainment, sports,and many other fields. Their story is one of the mostimportant of our time.

GEORGE MITCHELL, the son of a Greek goatherd, who tried to tap rock that experts deemedworthless but faced an unexpected obstacle in his quest to change history.

AUBREY McCLENDON, the charismatic scion of an Oklahoma energy family, who scored billionsleading a historic land grab. He wasnt prepared for the shocking fallout of his discoveries.

TOM WARD, who overcame a troubled childhood to become one of the nations wealthiestmen. He could handle natural-gas fields but had more trouble with a Wall Street power broker.

HAROLD HAMM, the son of poor sharecroppers, who believed America had more oil thananyone imagined. Hamm was determined to find the crude before others caught on.

CHARIF SOUKI, the dashing Lebanese immigrant who saw his career crumble and his fortunedisintegrate, leaving one last, unlikely chance for success.

MARK PAPA, the Enron castoff who panicked when he realized a resurgence of Americannatural gas was at hand, one that his company wasnt prepared for.