Fracking and the New Age of Oil, Money and Power

Wednesday, September 12, 2018
6:00pm — 7:00pm ET
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
2950 Broadway
The Joseph D. Jamail Lecture Hall, 3rd floor
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In the last few years, the fracking industry has boomed, leading many—including the President—to declare that soon America will be energy-independent, and free of the influence of foreign oil and gas suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Not so fast, writes business journalist Bethany McLean in her book Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It’s Changing the World. McLean was intrigued by the enthusiasm both Wall Street and the energy industry displayed for fracking, and decided to dig deeper. But her reporting reveals that this enthusiasm is qualified on both sides, and that much of the buzz around this energy stream is due to low interest rates for lending and borrowing capital rather than a predictable or reliable supply of oil and gas lurking under American soil. Just as she revealed that Enron looked too good to be true in her 2003 bestseller The Smartest Guys in the Room, McLean connects the dots to show how this burgeoning industry poses a threat to Saudi Arabian and Russian energy dominance, with possible repercussions for our own politics.

Join us as we celebrate the launch of this fascinating book: a look into whether America’s energy dominance could become a reality, and how we have gotten to where we are now. Author Bethany McLean will be joined in conversation by Jim Chanos and Joe Nocera.

• Bethany McLean is the co-author of the bestseller The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron with Peter Elkind. Her second book, which she co-authored with Joe Nocera, is All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. Her most recent book is Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants. She is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and lives in Chicago.
• Jim Chanos is the founder and Managing Partner of Kynikos Associates LP. He is currently also a Lecturer in Finance at the Yale School of Management teaching a class on the history of financial fraud. He has testified before Congress and provided comments to regulations proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mr. Chanos lives in New York City. He currently serves as a Trustee at The New-York Historical Society and The National WWII Museum.
• Joe Nocera is a columnist with Bloomberg Opinion. Previously, he was a columnist at The New York Times. He is the co-author with Bethany McLean of the bestseller, All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis. His latest book, written with Ben Strauss, is Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA.

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