For a While This Week, Oil Was Cheaper Than Dirt. Should We Be Worried?
Producers, who failed to anticipate how quickly storage would fill up this month, are now scrambling to turn off the taps—at least those who can.
Articles by Loren Steffy
What We Know About the Surge in Jobless Claims in Texas
You didn’t have to be a fortune teller or an economist to know that unemployment claims were going to spike.
How One Desperate Energy Executive Launched the Fracking Revolution
When his Houston-based company was on the ropes, George Mitchell pushed his engineers to resuscitate a declining North Texas gas field. The solution they came up with transformed the world.
Remembering T. Boone Pickens, the “Aw-Shucks” Billionaire
The Dallas oilman and corporate raider's long, complicated history as an aw-shucks billionaire.
What Happens When a Houston Energy Guru Messes With the Power Grid?
’Wall Street Journal’ reporter Russell Gold’s new book, ’Superpower,’ crafts an engaging narrative of one man’s quest to modernize the American energy business.
Is the World Ready for Dell 3.0?
Michael Dell has transformed the stodgy computer manufacturer that bears his name into a nimble data-management outfit. He’s hoping that's enough to bring the pride of Round Rock back to its former glory.
How Herb Kelleher Made the World a Whole Lot Smaller
The Southwest Airlines cofounder was a pioneering entrepreneur who changed the way we travel. He was also a world-class wit, a bon vivant, and a not-so-closet intellectual.
How West Texas Became Woodstock for Frackers
Welcome to the Permian Basin, home of the hottest oil play in the world.
The Power Issue: Randall Stephenson Is Dragging AT&T Into the 21st Century
The Dallas executive is trying to make sure the 139-year-old company sticks around for another 139 years.
T. Boone Pickens on Selling the Ranch
The entrepreneur and financier confronts mortality in the most Texan of ways: by putting his beloved ranch on the market.
A Farewell to Dairy Queens
A recent spate of closures of the iconic restaurant chain has left many communities in the lurch.
The Long Fall of iHeart, Once the Most Powerful and Feared Player in Radio
Launched by two of the biggest names in Texas business, Clear Channel was once the most powerful—and feared—player in radio. Now rebranded as iHeartMedia, it’s on the brink of bankruptcy.
Why Offshore Oil Workers Should Reflect on December 10
The date is the anniversary of an important court ruling for oil industry employees.
Important Offshore Safety Measure May Be Lost in Zeal to Repeal Regulations
Operators need to monitor data from their wells in real time in order to prevent the next Deepwater Horizon, experts say.
Why Trump’s Latest Travel Ban May Be Bad for Oil Companies
Recruiting new talent may become more challenging at a time when oil and gas companies need it most.
John Goodenough Plans to Make Gasoline Obsolete
How a wisecracking 95-year-old chemist plans to reenergize the future.
The Post-Harvey Gas Panic
Railroad Commissioner Ryan Sitton assures the public: ”There’s plenty of gasoline.”
If You Pay More for Gasoline This Week, Blame Harvey
Higher gasoline prices are just another consequence of the storm.
Buffett Rebuffed
How the greatest deal maker in history got outmaneuvered in his bid for Oncor.
Donald Vidrine, BP Company Man on the Deepwater Horizon, Dies
The night supervisor on the Deepwater Horizon died at his home in Louisiana.
As it Faces Elimination in Trump’s Budget, Here’s What the Chemical Safety Board Does
And why its $11 million budget is a bargain.
Black Elk Down
How did a small Houston oil company with grand ambitions get caught up in the biggest Ponzi scheme since Bernie Madoff?
Here’s The Reason Your Pump Prices Might Rise
What's contango? It's a pricing picture that has helped keep your gasoline prices low, and it's almost gone.
OPEC v. the Frackers: Round Two
When OPEC let oil prices plunge, U.S. producers responded by improving fracking technology.
Big Oil Roars Back
With Rex Tillerson and Rick Perry on his team, Donald Trump is all set to revive the fortunes of the Texas energy sector.
What Rex Tillerson’s Exxon Past Could Tell Us About His Political Future
He’s often described as “diplomatic,” but negotiating business is different than negotiating global relations.
The Pot of Cold
How Yeti turned the lowly cooler into a hot commodity—and a white-hot IPO.
Truth and Fiction on the Horizon
The worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history is getting the Hollywood treatment in "Deepwater Horizon," out today.
Blowout
Four years after his indictment, one of the only people prosecuted for the Deepwater Horizon explosion tells his side of the story.
Electric Mayhem
Every month, the customers of the state’s smallest energy transmission utility open their bills—and can’t believe what they see.
Out of Gas
How Aubrey McClendon, “America’s most reckless billionaire,” left some Houston energy firms holding the tab.
Do-It-Yourself Whataburger?
The iconic Texas burger chain’s oldest franchisee claims grocery store sales are part of plan to make its restaurants obsolete.
Great Planes
The real-life adventures of Leland Snow, the Thomas Edison of agricultural aviation.
Up in the Air
Five years later, Houston is still mourning the loss of Continental Airlines.
Whatabattle!
How the iconic burger chain’s attempt to build a bigger, better company alienated some of the people behind its success.
Behind the Curtain
For years, Kyle Lagow told his bosses at Countrywide Financial that the company was wreaking havoc on the housing market. But no one listened—until the entire economy came crashing down.
Margin of Error
The sad and baffling tale of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad business tax.
Lucrative When Wet
In an era of drought, tight finances, and a shrinking water park market, how does Schlitterbahn keep getting bigger?
This Time It’ll Be Different
Plummeting prices. Industry layoffs. Panicked mergers. Are we about to experience the eighties all over again?
That ’70s Shop
RadioShack was one of Fort Worth’s most prominent corporate citizens. Now it’s poised to be the latest brick-and-mortar victim of Internet commerce.
Energy Future Holdings Can Pay Its Top Executives $20 Million in Bonuses
Did we mention they're in bankruptcy?