Heat & Light by Jennifer Haigh
Bakerton, Pennsylvania was in the center of coal country and
when the mines were open Bakerton flourished.
The mine has been closed for years and unemployment and shuttered
businesses are almost all that is left of Bakerton. There are a few farms, and the nearby prison
provides some good jobs, but besides the local bar there isn’t much else in
Bakerton which is why meth has moved into town.
Then the natural gas companies arrive.
Bakerton sits atop the Marcellus Shale and gas companies want to extract
these natural resources through fracking.
Now residents are hurrying to sign leases giving the gas companies
access to the land under their land; after all they aren’t doing anything with
it so why not make some money? Things
could finally be looking up for Bakerton…or are they?
The nickname for this book already is “that fracking book” but
it’s not really about fracking. It’s
about how a community deals with their everyday once the rigs come to
town. The land leases seemed too good to
be true, and many residents are finding that is the case. Traffic, noise, water contamination and other
issues plague members of the community and their relationships with one
another.
There are a lot of different stories followed here, not just the
plight of one household, which is what made it so interesting. Also the wide reaching effects of drilling in
the area, even if your land is not leased to the gas companies. Energy and how we get it is the core of the
book, touching on coal, gas and even nuclear energy, all of which have made
their mark on Pennsylvania, but it is the personal stories and experiences in
this small town that happens to be placed in resource rich country that made
such a great read.
