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October 27, 2014

Midterm Elections Could Strengthen Opponents of Crude Oil Export Ban

The campaign to end a 39-year ban on the export of most domestically produced crude oil has gathered momentum over the past week. First came a report from the Government Accountability Office, indicating that removing the ban would boost domestic production by encouraging further investment. A few days later, fourteen independent oil producers joined to register […]

October 23, 2014

What it Would Take to Tap the Gulf’s Frozen Methane

According to University of Texas researchers, trillions of cubic feet of methane are trapped under the Gulf of Mexico, frozen. The U.S. Department of Energy gave Texas over $40 million to research this frozen gas – methane hydrate. As part of a four-year program, researchers will study methane hydrate and evaluate its potential as a […]

October 22, 2014

Does Drop In Oil Prices Make Texas Crude Too Expensive?

Recent financial news headlines have warned about: The dangers of “falling oil.” Or enduring the “Oil Crash of 2014.” Or having oil producers headed for “oblivion.” Could it really get that bad? Maybe, if it’s like it was a few decades ago. “There were bankruptcies everywhere,” said Ed Hirs, a Houston oil man and energy economist. “Exxon […]

October 14, 2014

Will Low Oil Prices Rattle The Texas Economy?

The benchmark price of U.S. crude hovers around $85 a barrel. That’s lower than it’s been in four years and $15 below where it was a year ago. Here are a few reasons why: Economic growth has stalled internationally – This has slowing the demand for oil, but oil supplies are increasing thanks to the shale boom in […]

October 7, 2014

Rising US Crude Oil Production Buffers Prices From Mideast Violence

Crude oil is now trading at roughly $13 a barrel less than it did a year ago. That’s in spite of the seizure of Iraqi and Syrian oil facilities by ISIS and a U.S.-led bombing campaign against those facilities. “The beginning of the bombing campaign in Syria and Iraq recently was met with a big […]

September 24, 2014

Flow Of Money From South Texas Oil Startles Economists

Economists made a surprising discovery when they measured the economic impact of oil & gas drilling in Texas. For the past four years, Thomsas Tunstall and a team of economists at University of Texas-San Antonio have been measuring the economic impact of surging oil & gas drilling in the rock formation called the Eagle Ford […]

September 23, 2014

What Does Fossil Fuel Divestment Mean For Texas?

“I think it is worth asking ourselves as a society how much longer we think we need to have an oil economy.” — Michael Webber, UT Energy Institute This week in New York, the UN Climate Summit is underway, and the Rockefeller Foundation made news with the announcement that it will divest close to a billion dollars from fossil […]

September 22, 2014

Oil & Gas Trouble In Texas Ranchland: Whose Road Is It?

The Railroad Commission of Texas will meet Monday morning to consider an issue of huge importance to landowners across Texas. It has to do with how the state oversees energy companies that need access to private land. At issue at the hearing will be pipelines for oil & gas. But there are other land use issues emerging in […]

September 19, 2014

What Can Texas Do About Roads Damaged by Drilling?

The Texas Department of Transportation gave an update Wednesday on their current measures to repair damaged rural roads in the Eagle Ford Shale. During a Texas Senate Transportation Committee on Transportation hearing, TxDOT highlighted a $500-million solution enacted by the state to rehabilitate damaged roads linked to heavy oil and gas related traffic in the […]

September 17, 2014

Fatigue Linked To Dozens Of Fatal Crashes Involving Oilfield Workers

From Houston Public Media: State Highway 72 cuts through the heart of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. The two-lane artery links oil boomtowns like Kenedy and Tilden to the Three Rivers Valero refinery. Local residents call the highway “Death Row.” “Every week someone dies, just about,” says Steve Alaniz, a construction manager based […]

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