Blowout

Former U.S. senator Dorgan (Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America), assisted by bestseller Hagberg (Abyss), makes good use of his energy affairs expertise in this exciting eco thriller. A secret government project in the North Dakota Badlands, the Dakota District Initiative, seeks to inject bacteria into coal seams to create methane that can be burned to produce electricity. If successful, this pollution-free process could solve America’s energy needs for four or five centuries, and foil the oil producing nations and the rapacious businesses that benefit from them. Wealthy hedge fund director D.S. Wood hires Posse Comitatus warrior Barry Egan and a group of like-minded wing-nuts to blow up the Initiative and save the world for big oil. A hardy cast of scientists, military men, and ordinary folk join forces to stop Wood and his henchmen. The authors smoothly blend near-constant action and cutting-edge science. Agents: Mel Berger, William Morris; Susan Gleason, Susan Gleason Literary Agency. (Mar.)