ABSTRACT
This book is about technological innovation in the extraction of natural resources and the effects of such innovation on U.S. natural resource industries. It is something of a paradox that the importance of technological innovation is underscored by the relative unimportance of these industries in national income statistics. Of a 1996 gross domestic product (GDP) of some $7.6 trillion, only about $240 billion, or 3.2%, originated in farming, fishing, forestry, and mining (CEA 1998).
