Energy
December 12, 2011
Is Fracking Polluting the Groundwater?
The EPA issued a draft report last week linking fracking to groundwater contamination, but this did not cool the industry’s support of the practice.
Energy
Reporting and commentary on the Texas energy industry and innovations shaping its future
Energy
December 5, 2011
Decision Delayed on the Fate of a Tiny Lizard
The feds have postponed their decision on whether to add the dunes sagebrush lizard to the endangered species list until mid-2012.
Energy
November 2, 2011
Should Everyone Have Air Conditioning?
As the state gets hotter, one former Midland resident thinks air conditioning should be required by the city building code.
Energy
September 30, 2011
Here’s the Drill
As hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. fracking) has unlocked untold reserves of natural gas, it has also unleashed a wave of concerns about pollution and, for one family in the Barnett Shale, a long nightmare.
Energy
July 31, 2011
Wind Instruments
From the old-style models to the three-story turbines, windmills are a part of Texas history. The machine's evolution is on display in Lubbock at the world's largest windmill museum.
Energy
July 31, 2011
A Mighty Wind
The unlikely story of how a handful of dreamers, schemers, and (all too often) failures made oil-and-gas-rich Texas the leading wind power state in the country.
Energy
June 30, 2011
T. Boone Pickens’s Office Cabinet
T. Boone Pickens’s office cabinet.
Energy
April 30, 2011
Oil Night Long
Amid all the drink tickets, bikini-clad hostesses, and outrageous displays of wealth at the world’s largest expo for independent oilmen, I was determined to get some answers about the future of the business.
Energy
August 31, 2010
Baby Boom
On October 27, 1900, an Austrian-born mining engineer named Anthony F. Lucas spudded in an oil well on a hill near Beaumont. He’d drilled a previous well in the vicinity to a depth of 575 feet before running out of money and giving up, but this time he’d secured financing
Energy
March 31, 2009
Shed a Little Light
Buying into energy efficiency, one electric bill at a time.
Energy
September 1, 2008
There Will Be Boone
Our most iconic oil and gas man, lately a water marauder and now a celebrated windcatter, has saved himself a couple of times in his eighty glorious years. Who’s to say he can’t save America?
Energy
March 31, 2008
Joe Wayland, Oil Field Worker
Wayland grew up in Midland and has worked in the oil industry for nearly a decade. He is now a mud engineer for Baker Hughes Drilling Fluids in Victoria.When I was growing up in Midland, I didn’t want anything to do with the oil field. In junior high, you learn
Energy
March 31, 2008
This Old House
Jim Atkinson changes out his insulation.
Energy
February 1, 2008
Matthew Simmons
(See “The Gospel According to Matthew,” to read the story.)
Energy
January 1, 2007
Power Play
Executive editor S. C. Gwynne on researching the energy industry and writing about coal plants.
Energy
January 1, 2007
Coal Hard Facts
Facing an energy crisis, Texas is on the verge of a solution that will belch about five billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the next forty years. Breathe deeply—while you still can.
Business
May 31, 2005
Boone Pickens
“The record’s clean. I’m sure that I haven’t done everything that everyone would like me to do. But I’ve never hurt anybody.”
Behind the Lines
March 1, 2002
Spare The Message
The real Enron scandal.
Business
November 1, 2001
How Enron Blew It
The Houston-based energy giant put the pursuit of profits ahead of all other corporate goals, which fostered a climate of workaholism and paranoia. And that was only part of the problem.
Business
May 31, 2000
Splurge! Merge! Purge!
Six months after the merger of Exxon and Mobil, a tally of the winners and losers.
Energy
August 31, 1997
Power Surge
The biggest economic news in Texas is the merging of the electric and natural-gas utility industries in anticipation of the coming deregulation of electricity. Huge deals are in the works: Houston Industries, the parent of Houston Lighting and Power, is acquiring Houston-based NorAm, the nation’s third-largest gas utility; and Texas
Energy
April 30, 1997
Power Outage
The state’s big investor-owned utilities, aptly nicknamed IOUs, are in big trouble—and Wall Street knows it. Historically, the IOUs have been able to block damaging legislation calling for the deregulation of electricity and immediate rate cuts, but the once-friendly Public Utility Commission has turned against them. In a sweeping and
Politics & Policy
March 1, 1996
Current Affair
Why electricity is a supercharged political issue. Plus: Who cares about the Democrats running for U.S. Senate?
Energy
February 1, 1996
Oil’s Well That Ends Well
It’s not enough to say that associate editor Helen Thorpe was a fish out of water while reporting her story on the new oil plays in the Gulf of Mexico (“Oil and Water,”). She was really a fish out of water on the water. Three different times, the 31-year-old,
Energy
November 1, 1995
Crude Awakening
There’s black gold in the South American rain forest—lots of it. Can the oil companies get it out without ruining the jungle and the way of life of the Indians who live there? The perils of drilling in the heart of darkness.
Energy
May 31, 1992
Oil and Water
Ten years ago I guess you could call yourself a Texan if you hadn’t been to the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, but an easy conversance with the OTC and its ways certainly bolstered your credentials. Back then the OTC was, like riding a horse or drinking a beer in
Health
March 1, 1992
Hazardous Duty
My father loved his job at a Gulf Coast oil refinery. In fact, he loved it to death.
Energy
April 1, 1991
Meaner Than a Junkyard Dog
“Guys like me like Iraq,” says Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt. “That’s the way the real world works, baby.”
Energy
December 1, 1990
Boomtown
Don’t give up on oil yet, Texas. Come along to Pearsall, deep in the brush country, and learn how the new oil boom is different from the old.
Energy
October 1, 1990
Power Switch
Are customers of the Comanche Peak nuclear plant better off with safety advocate Juanita Ellis on the inside or the outside?
Energy
November 1, 1988
Texas Primer: The Drill-Stem Fence
A lot stronger and more hospitable than barbed wire, this is one of those good fences that make good neighbors.
Energy
May 1, 1988
It Stinks
Times are rotten for refineries.
Energy
May 1, 1988
No Wonderland
Once an oil-field service boomtown, Alice doesn’t live well anymore.
Energy
May 1, 1988
The Wait for Deliverance
Despite all the mewling from the oil patch, there are still ways to make money at $15 a barrel. Here’s our guide to surviving the terrible teens.
Energy
March 1, 1988
The Man Who Crushed Texaco
Judges take his money. Juries buy his bull. And when clients like Pennzoil need a tiger in their tank, they hire Joe Jamail.
Energy
April 30, 1986
The Oil Revolution
So long, OPEC. So long, $27 oil. The Merc is king now.
Energy
April 1, 1986
Texas Primer: The Rig Count
At first, Hughes Tool used the count to plan its own future. Now an entire industry uses it to plan theirs.
Business
November 1, 1985
Texas Primer: The Petroleum Club
People who have watched a certain prime-time soap opera think they know what goes on at the Petroleum Club. They don’t.
Energy
October 1, 1984
Feasting on the Oil Glut
So you think that OPEC controls the price of oil and that the glut is hurting everybody in the oil business? Wrong. Traders on the international spot market are pulling the strings and getting rich in the process.
Business
August 31, 1983
The Big Con
From his early days in Big Spring, Eugene Anderson wasn’t what he seemed; neither was the mysterious element he later claimed turned water into fuel.
Energy
June 30, 1983
The Journeyman
Ed Jones rode the oil boom to a white-collar job. It was a short trip.
Energy
June 30, 1983
And Yet the Dream Endures
Don’t give up! There’s still money to be made finding oil. Up in Graham the Creswells are striking it rich with the help of Jesus and, er, creekology.
Energy
June 30, 1983
Ask Jett Rink
The quintessential wildcatter fills you in on free enterprise and Texas after oil.
Energy
June 30, 1983
The Gambler
Jack Young was the eighties’ oil boom in the flesh. Unfortunately, he also personifies the aftermath of the bust.
Energy
March 1, 1983
Texas Primer: The Right-angle Pump
West Texas was a desert when this little irrigation device came along. Now it’s a desert that produces more cotton than anywhere else in the country.
Business
February 1, 1981
Old Oil: The Ranger Revival
Ranger was the most romantic field in the early oil boom. Now a major company is risking its future to prove that romance still lives.
Energy
February 1, 1981
Oil Boom ’81
The glory days of the oil industry aren’t over; they’ve only just begun.
Energy
December 1, 1978
The Friends of Cloyce Box
With friends like these, Box’s company didn’t need enemies.
Energy
December 1, 1978
So You Want to Be Chairman of Exxon?
How the world’s largest corporation decides who will make it too the top—and who won’t.
Business
April 1, 1978
Daddy’s Money
The feuding over H. L. Hunt’s vast fortune is a family affair, and what a family!