America's Energy Gamble
People, Economy and Planet

Rigorous exploration of the Trump administration's pro-fossil fuel policy and its lasting impact on public health, the economy, and the environment.

Shanti Gamper-Rabindran (Author)

9781009018012, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 January 2022

550 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 2.9 cm, 0.772 kg

'Recommended.' R. M. Ramazani, Choice

How can America get back to an energy transition that's good for the economy and the environment? That's the question at the heart of this eye-opening and richly informative dissection of the Trump administration's energy policy. The policy was ardently pro-fossil fuel and ferociously anti-regulation, implemented by manipulating science and economic analysis, putting oil and gas insiders at the helm of environmental agencies, and hacking away at democratic norms that once enjoyed bipartisan support. The impacts on the nation's health, economy, and environment were - as this book carefully demonstrates - dire. But the damage can be reversed. Ordinary Americans, civil society groups, environmental professionals, and politicians at every level all have parts to play in making sure the needed energy transition leaves no one behind. This compelling book will appeal to course instructors and students, government and industry officials, activists and journalists, and everyone concerned about the nation's future.

1. Introduction
Part I. America's Energy
2. Oil and gas: the quest for energy dominance
3. Renewable energy: setbacks, successes and strategies for the energy transition
Part II. America's Lands
4. Public and private lands: extraction and infrastructure versus competing economic pursuits
5. Native American lands: respect for tribes' rights vs. encroachment
Part III. America's Seas
6. Oceans: drilling v. competing use of coasts and seas
7. Backtracking on safety: risking another BP oil spill
Part IV. America's Regulatory Process. 8. Science: undermining facts to understate regulatory benefits
9. Economics: skewing analyses to justify weaker regulations
10. Law: anti-regulatory statutory interpretations and reshaping the judiciary
Part V. The Global Climate
11. Endangering the climate: attacking global cooperation, state governments' leadership and the private sector's economic restructuring
12. America at crossroads.

Subject Areas: Alternative & renewable energy sources & technology [THX], Energy conversion & storage [THRH], Environmental medicine [MMR], Environmental factors [MBNH2], Energy & natural resources law [LNCR], Alternative & renewable energy industries [KNBT], Environmental economics [KCN]