A New Energy 'Third World' in North America?

Abstract

Michael T. Klare examines how big energy companies are increasingly focusing their efforts on untapped energy resources in North America, such as shale oil and gas. This is as a result, he argues, of increased regulations and resistance from countries in the Global South, which have been the focus of Big Oil since the 1970s but which have recently become more effective in protecting their energy reserves against foreign exploitation. The author argues that Big Oil’s focus on North America brings with it serious environmental and human rights concerns – due, for example, to the technique of hydro-fracking, which risks contaminating water supplies, and the attempts to open up coastal and wilderness areas to drilling that were previously protected. The recent shift in US administration only increases the likelihood that the demands from big energy will be met. All this, the author argues, risks leaving the US exploited by big energy and by the political elite, in the same way that so many Global South countries have been.

Keywords: big energy, Fracking, environmental regulation, big oil