Customer Reviews

Crude Awakening: The Oil Mess in America: Wasting Energy, Jobs, & the Environment

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"Crude Awakening" was published by Friends of the Earth in 1993-1994. I am the book's author and offer the following summary: The book undertook a somewhat novel approach in exposing oil pollution and energy waste, as it targeted the integrity and efficiency/inefficiency of the nation's oil and gas infrastructure - wells, pipelines, refineries, tank farms, offshore rigs, the corner gas station, etc. It revealed an enormous annual U.S. energy hemorrhage throughout the system from leakage, spills, venting, waste, process inefficiencies, etc.- equivalent to hundreds of millions of barrels of oil annually. Compiled from industry, news, and government sources and fully documented, "Crude Awakening" included extensive and detailed data and historic profiles on the waste, spillage, and inefficiency. Along with more than two dozen case studies and a running historical narrative, it showed that air and water pollution, toxic sludge, and dangerous refineries were too often the result of industry mismanagement, insufficient capital spending and upkeep, and system inefficiency, posing threats to workers, communities, and public health. The book also covered the industry's political history, highlighting environmental loopholes and special treatment found in a numerous laws, including, for example: the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act; the Comprehensive Response, Compensation & Liability Act (Superfund); the Clean Water Act; the Safe Drinking Water Act; the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act; the Clean Air Act of 1990; the Emergency Planning & Community Right-to-Know Act, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and others. Crude Awakening also included more than 20 specific legislative recommendations for Congress, called for specific leadership actions from the oil and gas industry, and made detailed recommendations to the President and the Executive. The book received notice in the national press, including front-page(17 May 1983) and editorial (18 May 1983) coverage from USA Today. The book's findings were also conveyed in a statement filed by Friends of the Earth with the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Taxation at March 1994 hearings on tax policy and the oil & gas industry. The book's author, Jack Doyle, later published a Sunday Washington Post Outlook Section piece on the oil industry that ran on July 31,1994. "Crude Awakening" was also cited in the February 1997 hearing record of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs regarding S.207, "The Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission Act of 1997," to Review, Reform, and Terminate Unnecessary and Inequitable Federal Subsidies.

This is an excellent investigation of a topic that is still pertinent today. Having the history of environmental impacts from oil and gas production, and the regulatory gaps, compiled in this report make it a very valuable reference document.

I was amazed to see this book listed here. I read it years ago and it was a completely dishonest depiction of the oil industry that seemed to be written by someone with an axe to grind.