Energy Wars: Notes From the Front

Our planet is going through an energy transformation as profound as when the world switched from killing whales to drilling wells to provide its fuel. The effects of this energy war are being felt from Siberia to Texas and in our own backyards. In this far-ranging book, William Sargent takes his readers from a small oil well he owns in East Texas to the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia. In Texas he found wildcatters using carbon dioxide to pump residual oil out of his well then sequestering the heat trapping gas back underground. In Siberia, the readers will find Vladimir Putin gambling that he can both fight sanctions and use western technology to beat America at its own game. Energy Wars will explain that Iran wants to sell oil to the West to put Saudi Arabia out of business and Saudi Arabia wants to sell oil to the West to put U.S. frackers out of business. And finally, lined up against all these big oil players are a growing army of small farmers and local entrepreneurs developing new ways to drive cars, grow food, and harvest energy from the wind and sun. And who is winning this war? Against almost insurmountable odds it is some of these small farmers and entrepreneurs. Finally the author ends up at a divestment rally at Harvard University where he discovers that an old dog can learn new tricks about battling big oil.