"A brilliant examination of the history of offshore oil cast in a crisply written narrative. Tyler Priest forces readers to think anew about the politics of industry, states' rights, the environment, and American expansion, showing us why he's one of our preeminent energy scholars." - Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea
"With both precision and breadth, Tyler Priest provides an engrossing account of the legal, social, and political events that shaped the rich federal oil kingdom off the U.S. coasts. He likens this oildom's creation to 'a smoldering political and legal potato, scorched from all sides' by coastal states battling the feds in court and in Congress, a polarized battle that continues to this day." - Jacqueline L. Weaver, professor emerita of law, University of Houston Law Center
"Tyler Priest, a preeminent historian of energy and the environment, explores how a single well drilled off a pier near Santa Barbara in 1898 gave rise to a major American industryoffshore oil and gas. In spirited prose, Priest demonstrates how this U.S. industry was created not only by innovation, creative engineering, and complex execution; it was also the result of fierce political battles." - Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power and The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations
"In writing Offshore Oildom, Tyler Priest has amassed a stunning amount of information on the emergence of U.S. offshore oil production, utilizing scores of oral interviews and extensive archival and official records scattered across the country. The result, more than two decades in the making, is a masterpiece in American energy history. No thoughtful discussion of energy resource development can ignore this deeply researched landmark study." - Jay Hakes, author of The Presidents and the Planet: Climate Change Science and Politics from Eisenhower to Bush
