Gravel roads like this one are coming to the Eagle Ford Shale.
On a rare rainy day in DeWitt County, Texas, Curtis Afflerbach rumbles down a ragged strip of asphalt in his silver pickup. It’s hazy outside, but he can still make out the oil and gas wells on either side of him. Afflerbach counts them, reaching 12 as he drives the length of narrow road.
Afflerbach grew up in DeWitt County on a farm outside of Cuero. Now, as a County Commissioner, he’s partly responsible for maintaining roads. But that’s been difficult lately. Still driving, Afflerbach starts to point out the enormous pot holes that are scattered seemingly everywhere.
Those oil and gas wells that Afflerbach was counting? They’re the reason for the holes.
Downtown Odessa Texas, despite having a roaring hot economy, some storefronts remain empty in the oil-rich Permian Basin.
The Midland-Odessa region in West Texas has the highest GDP growth in the country, the lowest unemployment in Texas. This is oil country, and oil is one of the most profitable products in the world. But if you ask someone what it’s like to live there, don’t be surprised to hear answer like this:
“It’s terrible.”
During a recent visit I heard that sentiment from oilfield hands and office workers alike. One roughneck I ran into at an Odessa doughnut shop agreed to share his opinions anonymously. (He didn’t want his name included in this story because his company has a policy against talking to reporters).
“Everything’s overpriced, the food is overpriced, living is overpriced,” he said.
And that was just the start. His other complaints: housing is impossible to find, rents are high, traffic is terrible, crime is bad and there’s nothing to do.
“Everybody’s just trying to make as much as they can, wait for this boom to be over and get out,” he said.
French Erwann Le Rouzic, captain of Planetsolar catamaran, the first boat around the world with solar energy, walks over the photovoltaic panel during his 581st day of sailing around the world, in the Mediterranean Sea near Corsica on May 1, 2012 .
While Texas leads the nation in the production of oil, natural gas and wind energy, the sunny state is lagging a little in the solar energy race. Texas comes seventh in installed solar, but ranks first in potential for solar energy. Several new developments in the state’s energy industry may begin to change that.
If you’re a customer in the deregulated parts of Texas’ energy market (i.e. most of the state, save Austin, El Paso, San Antonio, and some parts of the Panhandle), you now have the option to to power your home 100% from the sun. SolarSPARC is a new program from a retail electric provider — essentially the cable or phone companies of the electricity world in Texas — that is offering, for the first time, a 100% solar power option for customers.
“This really opens up solar to the masses,” says Shay Ohrel, product innovation manager for Green Mountain Energy in Austin, which has started the program. “It allows people to receive both the environmental and financial benefits of solar.”
Solar continues to get cheaper, and installations are growing in the country. While Texas doesn’t have much of it yet, cities like Austin and San Antonio are moving forward with long-term projects to build large solar farms. An option like Solar Spark allows residential consumers outside of those cities to choose solar without having to install panels on their own roof. Continue Reading →
State environmental commissioners have approved crucial permits for Lake Ralph Hall in Fannin County.
The vote was historic, marking the first time since 1985 that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has approved the construction of a lake that would be a water supply.
Commissioner Toby Baker said the step forward comes at a pivotal time.
“Right now what we’re dealing with in the state of Texas is a population that is growing exponentially and a water supply that is remaining static, exacerbated by one of the worst droughts we have ever had,” Baker said. Continue Reading →
Barber Bruce Conley with a client at The Barbershop in Odessa, Texas.
The Barbershop. In movies, TV, and popular culture it’s the place people go to catch up on what’s happening. If you want to get a feel for a place, it’s hard to beat the barbershop. People are in and out all day ready to shoot the breeze.
So on StateImpact Texas’ reporting trip to the Permian Basin, KUT’s Mose Buchele stopped into
“The Barbershop” on Dixie Avenue in Odessa. He heard from the regulars how life has changed during the current oil boom, and how things stacked up against the boom of the 1970s.
Usually these include exactly what you might expect: hunters shooting game from their vehicles, anglers exceeding catch limits, and so on. But the field notes are also worth reading because of the occasional unexpected gems like these:
 In San Patricio County, a game warden received a call about someone keeping a family of deer as pets. When the warden arrived at the scene, the homeowner claimed that “he knew this day would come,” before leading the warden to the pen where he kept the deer. The deer were relocated to a more suitable habitat.
A Henderson County man accidentally shot a deer out of season in October of 2010. Even though he was only 50 yards away, he claimed to have mistaken the deer for a dog.
On Sept. 4, 2011 in Harris County, two game wardens were contacted by a distressed waterfront restaurant owner. Apparently, a 76-foot catamaran had run into his restaurant’s dock. The dock was dislodged from the establishment, causing some of his property to fall in the water. When the wardens caught up to the catamaran, the boat’s operator was unable to explain why he had hit the dock. To the surprise of no one, he was arrested for boating while intoxicated.
StateImpact Texas categorized every Game Warden Field Notes entry dating back to 2010 in order to illustrate the most common offenses that wardens encounter.
The toilet sink, imported from Japan, aims to educate people about conservation at Steve's Market and Deli.
Located just one county north of geographic center of Texas, Brownwood, population 20,000, might seem an unlikely place for high tech innovation. But about a year ago the town made headlines for proposing a cutting-edge solution to its water crisis: toilet to tap waste water treatment.
The future of that project remains unclear as the town explores other options (including simply digging new wells). But that hasn’t stopped some residents from taking matters into their own hands. On our recent reporting trip to to the oilfields of the Permian Basin, we ran into one of those people: Steve Harris, co-owner of Steve’s Market and Deli.
As a small businessman and self-described ‘activist’ Harris has turned his cafe into a sort of show-room for water conservation. The bathroom featured a toilet-sink commonly found in Tokyo. The cafe also captures rain water, and water from the AC system. It recycles trash in a town that has no city-wide recycling.
Workers check to make sure the food is not expired.
Sonia Perez is an employee of the West Texas Food Bank.
Campbell says the food bank distributes between four and five million pounds of food a year. tributes
The Permian Basin oil boom has brought jobs and wealth to West Texas, but it’s also brought something less expected: hunger. During a recent trip to Odessa, StateImpact Texas’s Mose Buchele sat down with Libby Campbell, director of the West Texas Food Bank, to learn how, as she puts it, “not all tides raise all ships.”
1) Increased Property Values. With people moving to the Permian Basin from all over the country, property values have skyrocketed. You often hear stories of rents doubling when the time comes for a tenant to re-sign a lease. That’s put a strain on budgets and led to more hunger in the region.
“Maybe their rent was six or eight hundred dollars three or four years ago, it’s currently twelve or fifteen hundred dollars,” says Campbell. “You’ve kind of already busted your budget before you even get to the point that you’re purchasing food.”
A stream of workers leave the TXU Monticello power plant near Mt. Pleasant, Texas February 26, 2007.
Amid the continued decline in coal power in the state, Texas’ largest power generator is asking the state for permission to idle another of its coal power units this winter. And new federal regulations proposed today make it unlikely that many new coal power plants will be built in the foreseeable future.
Luminant, a division of the financially-troubled Energy Future Holdings, is asking operators of the Texas grid if it can suspend one unit at its Martin Lake coal plant in Northeast Texas. It’s similar to another request by the company — already granted last year and again this year — to suspend two other units at the large Monticello coal power plant in the same region.
While there’s been plenty of talk over the last few years of a regulatory “War on Coal,” the culprit behind coal’s slowdown in Texas is something far different: the free market. Continue Reading →
As oil and gas production and processing increases, who wins and who loses in Texas?
Texas Land Commission Jerry Patterson told a political luncheon in Houston that “oppressive federal government regulation” was a big threat to the Texas energy economy. Especially pollution regulation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“And more specifically, (by) the U.S. Wildlife Service and their Endangered Species designations for critters that probably ought to die anyway,” Patterson said, referring to federal efforts to protect species including salamanders, lizards and prairie chickens. The designations could restrict oil & gas drilling in West Texas.
Come to Texas
It’s an anti-regulation stance repeated by the state’s top officials including Governor Rick Perry. Perry has used radio ads to try to lure businesses from other states to Texas where he said there is “limited government” and a “pro-business environment.”
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