Book Review: BLOWOUT by Rachel Maddow

Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow  (Crown, October 2019)  Hardcover, 406 pages.  ISBN #  0525575472 / 978052557574 

 Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

Big Oil and Gas Versus Democracy—Winner Take All

Rachel Maddow’s Blowout offers a dark, serpentine, riveting tour of the unimaginably lucrative and corrupt oil-and-gas industry. 

With her trademark black humor, Maddow takes us on a switchback journey around the globe—from Oklahoma City to Siberia to Equatorial Guinea—exposing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas. She shows how Russia’s rich reserves of crude have, paradoxically, stunted its growth, forcing Putin to maintain his power by spreading Russia’s rot into its rivals, its neighbors, the United States, and the West’s most important alliances. 

Chevron, BP, and a host of other industry players get their star turn, but ExxonMobil and the deceptively well-behaved Rex Tillerson emerge as two of the past century’s most consequential corporate villains. The oil-and-gas industry has weakened democracies in developed and developing countries, fouled oceans and rivers, and propped up authoritarian thieves and killers. But being outraged at it is, according to Maddow, “like being indignant when a lion takes down and eats a gazelle. You can’t really blame the lion. It’s in her nature.”

This book is a clarion call to contain the lion: to stop subsidizing the wealthiest industry on earth, to fight for transparency, and to check the influence of predatory oil executives and their enablers. The stakes have never been higher. As Maddow writes, “Democracy either wins this one or disappears.” 

My 5-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     Maddow backs up her analysis with careful research that exposes the great disparity in our current political landscape as regards how much influence citizens have on policy versus big business and manipulation of U.S. government at all levels. The oil and gas industry has received massive subsidies over the years, been able to benefit from huge tax breaks, and conduct business overseas with almost no regard for U.S. foreign relations policy. This book will enlighten you as much as it will enrage you.

     The most disturbing occurrence of many in this book is how the entire state government of Oklahoma was bent in service to oil and gas concerns, particularly fracking and it's effect on the increase in earthquakes, pollution of groundwater, and the cover-up that the government participated in until taxpayers finally said enough and spoke out, resulting in some long delayed actions and tax reform. 

     When a conscientious scientist said too much, he was shut down. As Maddow tells it: "Holland really wasn't looking to pick a fight; he told his bosses he though the edits from on high might 'help (the OIPA) feel better about the presentation.' So Hamm's intercession to keep the science at bay worked for a while. The man-made earthquake question in Oklahoma remained a nonissue for the next few years. Which makes this a case study in what happens when a powerful industry thoroughly captures a state government. In theory, an industry's job is to make money -- to serve its customers and provide for its employees and shareholders -- while the government's job is to make sure the industry operates on a level playing field, that companies follow the law and don't endanger others. When government is no match for the power of the industry, it instead becomes an enabler, an apologist, and often a corrupt participant in the industry running roughshod."

     The worst offender is Exxon/Mobil, who are in bed with Russia (and lobby for the removal of sanctions) and prop up a corrupt government in Africa is order to access their oil reserves. 

     There is a note of optimism in Maddow's reporting and analysis, however. It's the examples of the little people standing up and forcing action, particularly in the case of Oklahoma. 

     As Maddow sums it up: "Containment is the small-c conservative answer to the problem at hand - - democratically supported, government-enforced active and aggressive containment. It's the only way to fight against the industry's reliance on corruption and capture. The question isn't whether it's doable; it is. Powerful enemies make for big, difficult fights. But you can't win if you don't play, and in this fight it's the stakes that should motivate us: Democracy either wins this one or disappears."