Hochschild chooses Louisiana as a case study in contemporary conservatism. The state is in fact one of the worst in terms of environment education and economy, which are all tied together in very complex ways, and yet individuals align themselves with the republican party, even though data shows that its policies only exacerbate the kind of issues that are affecting these people. Besides cultural remoteness from Berkeley, there is another reason for the choice of Louisiana: It is a center of the U.S. energy industry—“the buckle in America’s energy belt”—and consequently the site of some of the worst environmental disasters in history, such as the Bayou Corne sinkhole (). Louisiana is now a center of petrochemical industry and fracking revolution,