The Carbon Rush

The Carbon Rush traces America’s dramatic history of energy discovery, innovation, and combustion. The journey begins in 1620 when the Pilgrims were swarmed by pods of whales off Provincetown. Starved for lamp oil, the settlers devised the world’s greatest whaling fleet. By the early 1700s, America’s magnificent forests fueled robust shipbuilding and ironworking industries that proved vital to the colonists in the Revolutionary War. Throughout the westward...
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The Carbon Rush traces America’s dramatic history of energy discovery, innovation, and combustion. The journey begins in 1620 when the Pilgrims were swarmed by pods of whales off Provincetown. Starved for lamp oil, the settlers devised the world’s greatest whaling fleet. By the early 1700s, America’s magnificent forests fueled robust shipbuilding and ironworking industries that proved vital to the colonists in the Revolutionary War. Throughout the westward expansion, America’s plentiful coal reserves fired a potent fleet of steamships and locomotives. The great tycoons John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Henry Ford founded their fortunes and built the nation’s infrastructure on first coal, then petroleum, and finally natural gas. Each carbon energy source rewarded technological innovation with wealth and power. America’s carbon energy demand continued to accelerate driven by the country’s expanding economy, escalating standard of living, and massive fleet of personal automobiles. When domestic oil production peaked in 1970, America shifted to imported petroleum to quench her thirst. Forty years later, America exports a billion dollars a day for crude oil, and controversies rage over domestic oil reserves, natural gas fracking, Chinese solar panels, biofuels, global warming, and coal power. The Carbon Rush shines refreshingly bright light on these controversies by peering deeply into the flames of America’s energy past, present, and future.