{"id":30544,"date":"2013-08-15T11:25:43","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T16:25:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=30544"},"modified":"2013-09-10T09:50:26","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T14:50:26","slug":"stateimpact-texas-hits-the-road-ups-and-downs-of-a-drilling-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/08\/15\/stateimpact-texas-hits-the-road-ups-and-downs-of-a-drilling-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"StateImpact Texas Hits the Road: Ups and Downs of a Drilling Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"StateImpact

Photo by Sarah M. Vasquez\/Marfa Public Radio<\/p>

StateImpact Texas reporter Terrence Henry moderates a panel on the impacts of the drilling boom in West Texas in Odessa Tuesday, with (left to right) Kirk Edwards, Libby Campbell, W. Hoxie Smith, Gil Van De Venter, and Paul Weatherby.<\/p><\/div>\n

StateImpact Texas hit the road this week<\/a> to talk to communities in West Texas about the impacts of drilling and the drought. On Tuesday, we spent the day in Midland, talking to locals, oil field workers and new arrivals about how a massive uptick in drilling is changing the community.<\/p>\n

We also held a community forum at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin<\/a>, you can check out a story in the Odessa-American<\/a> about the event here<\/a>, and we’ll have more on the site soon.<\/p>\n

We’ve been posting updates from the road to our Tumblr<\/a>, here’s a few selections from our time in the Permian Basin, from a barber who thinks there’s more booms to come, to the effects of a housing shortage:<\/p>\n

\"Here<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Mose Buchele of StateImpact Texas interviewing Libby Campbell, executive director of the West Texas Food Bank. She says the oil and gas boom has driven the cost of living up, especially rents. That means there\u2019s more demand for food aid than there was before the boom.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Sat<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Sat down with an oilfield worker over a bowl of pho at\u00a0this Doughnut shop \/ Vietnamese food joint<\/a>\u00a0in Odessa. He wouldn\u2019t give his name, citing company policy. But he didn\u2019t think many of the roughnecks in Midland would stick around if the boom ends. People are here \u201cto get their money and get out,\u201d he said. When that happens, he said \u201cthis will all be tumbleweeds.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Thanks<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

On Tuesday night we moderated a community forum with KXWT West Texas Public Radio, featuring local experts on the impacts of the drilling boom.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Housing<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Housing is one of the major challenges facing the Midland Odessa area. We\u2019ve spoken with retirees whose rent has been doubled, oil field workers who share one bedroom apartments five ways, and students afraid to move out of bad housing because they don\u2019t know if they can find something new.<\/em><\/p>\n

To answer the shortage, a housing boom is following the oil boom, but developers are playing catch up. What would happen to all this new construction if the economy slows down?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"I<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

I met Bruce Connelly at his barber shop on Dixie Blvd. in Odessa. He worked the oilfields during the boom three decades ago. What\u2019s happening now doesn\u2019t compare, he said.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just getting started,” said Connelly, “we\u2019ve got a lot of booms left.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more from the road — and follow along on our Tumblr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Support for the StateImpact Texas Road Show comes in part from\u00a0The UT Energy Institute<\/a>.<\/em><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

StateImpact Texas hit the road this week to talk to communities in West Texas about the impacts of drilling and the drought. On Tuesday, we spent the day in Midland, talking to locals, oil field workers and new arrivals about how a massive uptick in drilling is changing the community. We also held a community […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[21,105,321],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30544"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31062,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30544\/revisions\/31062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}