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
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351-400 of 428 Articles
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.
Mimi Swartz
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.
Energy
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
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
October 1, 1995
Reversal of Fortune
Boone Pickens and his protégé, David Batchelder, built Mesa Petroleum into an energy giant. Now Pickens’ empire is crumbling and his former aide is leading the charge against him.
Energy
April 30, 1995
Refinery Woe
Citizens groups in Corpus Christi blame pollution for high cance rates—but they must prove it.
Energy
November 1, 1994
Disarmed and Dangerous
With the end of the cold war, the Pantex nuclear facility is dismantling its bombs. Will nearby Amarillo’s environment and economy get blown to pieces?
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.
Politics & Policy
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?
Business
November 1, 1988
How Houston Beat the Bust: Branching Out
An entrepreneur captures customers in public rest rooms. A high-tech plant moves from oil to medicine. Space and biomedical manufacturing are finally off the drawing boards. And a former union boss becomes a bingo mogul.
Energy
November 1, 1988
How Houston Beat the Bust: Energy
Engineer Saba Haregot’s love affair with Houston (it’s not just all those job offers). How natural gas is helping to reinflate the economy. And a shuttered plant that tempers oil pipe opens up.
Energy
November 1, 1988
How Houston Beat the Bust (Sort Of)
This story is from Texas Monthly’s archives. We have left the text as it was originally published to maintain a clear historical record. Read more here about our archive digitization project. Once Texans thought the boom would never end. Then they thought the bust would
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
February 1, 1987
Undertakers of the Oil Patch
The death of an oil well keeps an oil-field service company alive.
Business
December 1, 1986
Making It in the Bust
At a time when Texas seems to have lost its gift for creating fortunes, there has emerged a group of entrepreneurs who are making money by catering to the needs of people who are going broke.
Politics & Policy
August 1, 1986
Mack Wallace, Railroad Commissioner, Wants to Save the World
Tapped by destiny, one man in Austin is forging an unlikely alliance between Texas oilmen and the friends of Israel.
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.
Business
April 1, 1985
Why Boone Can’t Lose
An old hand at Pickens-watching reveals the key to the Amarillo oilman’s corporate-takeover antics.
Energy
February 1, 1985
Texas Primer: The Oil Depletion Allowance
Assailed by presidents, skewered by senators, decried by the New York Times, the oil depletion allowance has survived it all. It helps to have friends in high places.
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.