Business
December 1, 2023
Oxy Deal Could Yield Billions for Tim Dunn’s Political Efforts
If Occidental Petroleum acquires CrownRock, the right-wing Midland oilman could become an even bigger power broker—in Texas and perhaps nationally.
Energy
Reporting and commentary on the Texas energy industry and innovations shaping its future
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1-50 of 422 Articles
Energy
November 7, 2023
Should Texas Build More Nuclear Power Plants?
State leaders are bullish on new atom-splitting technologies, even as those same officials hobble wind and solar projects.
Energy
October 18, 2023
The Year the Texas Legislature Changed the Energy Game Forever
In 1999 lawmakers radically altered the electricity marketplace. We can all breathe easier—literally—because of it.
Energy
September 8, 2023
Texas Paid a Bitcoin Miner $31.7 Million to Use Less Electricity During the State’s Hottest Month
Paying Bitcoin companies to turn off their energy-gobbling computers is apparently our best plan to keep the power on for the rest of us.
Energy
September 5, 2023
Hundreds of Abandoned Oil Wells Are Rotting Away in Texas Bays
Defunct companies have left behind energy facilities that leak toxins into fragile coastal ecosystems. And guess who has to clean them up?
Energy
August 24, 2023
Thousands of Old Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up in West Texas
Officials in Sweetwater say an out-of-state company has made their town a dump for the seldom-seen trash created by renewable energy.
Energy
August 15, 2023
We’re All Living in the World Enron Created
When the go-go Houston corporation collapsed in spectacular fashion, it became a punch line across the nation. But some of the bad guys had the last laugh.
Energy
August 14, 2023
We’re Number One in Renewable Energy and Nonrenewable Energy
Why Texas is the past, present, and future when it comes to fueling the world.
Energy
August 10, 2023
Has a San Antonio Inventor Solved a Problem of Small-scale Wind Power?
Tinkering in his backyard, Dan Marsh aims to devise an efficient source of electricity for suburban rooftops and beachside barbecues.
Energy
July 11, 2023
In the Aging Oil Business, These Young CEOs Stand Out
Many millennial and Gen Z workers have turned away from careers in fossil fuels—making Midland-based Permian Resources an anomaly.
Energy
June 29, 2023
Without Solar Power, This Texas Heat Wave Would Burn Much Worse
Thank goodness the state GOP's war on renewables has, so far, failed.
Energy
May 22, 2023
How a Powerful Texas Lawmaker and His Family Made Half a Million for a Few Phone Calls
Depositions in a recent lawsuit reveal that state rep Tom Craddick, his wife and son, and his daughter, Christi, who leads Texas’s oil and gas regulating agency, profit from industry deals not available to just anyone.
Energy
May 8, 2023
The Texas GOP’s War on Renewable Energy
What’s behind the Legislature’s relentless campaign against wind and solar power, which are saving Texans billions?
Texas History
April 11, 2023
The Oil Boom That Went Bust
In the eighties, petroleum prices went through the roof, and Texans, flush with cash, went a little crazy—before it all came crashing down. Will we ever learn?
Business
March 13, 2023
Elon Musk Came to Texas to End the Oil Age
It took him a while to get here, but now he’s out to transform our state with new technologies—if our leaders’ hostility toward renewable energy (and his Twitter misadventures) don’t get in the way.
Energy
February 3, 2023
Why Can’t Texas Just Bury Its Electrical Lines?
Let’s crunch the numbers on what it would cost to avoid another “oakpocalypse.”
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Whatever Happened to the Old-fashioned Texas Oilmen?
They washed the crude off their hands and put on suits and ties. Or sensible blazer-and-skirt combos.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Consider the Windmill
Along with its descendant, the towering wind turbine, this spindly mechanism turns fast and slow, measuring out our days.
Energy
January 16, 2023
Texas Power Plants Swore They Were Ready for the Next Big Freeze. Many Weren’t.
The state avoided a disaster during the recent Arctic blast, but a sizable number of electricity generators still struggled in the cold.
Energy
January 12, 2023
Drilling in the Permian Is Lonely Work. A Rig Dog Can Help.
When Bruno went missing, Alex Reyna lost a key member of his oil-field crew.
Energy
October 28, 2022
After a Lifetime of Drilling, This Texas Oilman Digs One Final Well
On a farm near Flatonia, Mike Shellman closes the chapter on nearly sixty years in the business.
News
September 29, 2022
How Enron Foretold Our Greedy, Disastrous Present
When Texas Monthly covered Enron's fall in 2001, we wondered if the company was an outlier or the new normal. There's no longer any question.
Energy
August 18, 2022
Texas Leaders Shut Renewables Out in Planning the Power Grid’s Future
On a state advisory committee, only one member has experience developing wind or solar power. And he’s voiced some eyebrow-raising ideas.
Energy
August 10, 2022
Opinion: Let’s Cut the Red Tape That’s Holding Back Solar Energy in Texas
Homeowners could take much more burden off the power grid, if cities and utilities would get out of the way.
Energy
July 29, 2022
ExxonMobil Makes Godlike Profits, but Mortal Challenges Remain
The oil giant this week announced quarterly earnings that set an all-time record for any Texas business. That’s both good and bad news for the state.
Energy
July 20, 2022
No, Shading Your AC Unit With an Umbrella Won’t Help. But We Talked to an Expert About What Will.
Put the umbrella down. A viral Facebook post offers some bad advice to Texans about how to stay cool in this summer’s record-breaking heat.
Energy
July 12, 2022
Solar Power Is Bailing Texas Out This Summer
Enjoying that AC? Thank the mighty power of the sun and the renewable energy source keeping the grid afloat.
Energy
July 11, 2022
Bitcoin Miners Could Save the Texas Grid—or Sink It
Our state struggles to serve Texans’ needs on the hottest and coldest days. So why are we welcoming the energy-hogging cryptocurrency industry?
Energy
June 29, 2022
An Oil Well Off Padre Island Leaked for Months Before It Was Plugged
Patching it cost the state $1.6 million. Many others are similarly falling into disrepair, and the agencies charged with their oversight are doing nothing about them.
Energy
June 15, 2022
The West Texas Rancher Exposing Big Oil’s Buried Secrets
After an abandoned well began spewing toxic, salty water onto her Permian Basin land, Ashley Watt would stop at nothing to determine the cause—and to hold Chevron accountable.
Politics & Policy
June 6, 2022
Paul Burka’s Profile of Clinton Manges Exemplifies an Unrivaled Career
No one had a deeper understanding of Texas power—its heroes and villains, its uses and abuses—than Paul.
Texas History
May 31, 2022
How Texas Monthly Chronicled the Eighties Oil Bust Via a Beloved Houston Clothier
Bobby Sakowitz dressed Houston’s most stylish through the seventies and eighties boom years. Then things went bust.
Texas History
May 23, 2022
How a Texas Monthly Editor Got Inside a Billion-Dollar Wall Street Power Play
Joe Nocera’s pitched profile of then-little-known T. Boone Pickens got him unprecedented access to Pickens’s 1982 attempt to take over Cities Service.
Energy
April 26, 2022
A New Texas Oil Boom Is Coming, Finally
That is, whenever the industry can sort out supply-chain issues and labor shortages.
Energy
April 4, 2022
How a Writer in the Seventies Documented the Essence of Exxon
Former staff writer Nicholas Lemann remembers how Exxon refused to cooperate with his story—and why that made all the difference.
Energy
March 11, 2022
$100 Oil Is Back! Why Isn’t Texas Drilling?
Russia’s war on Ukraine has made it practically patriotic to pump oil, but the Permian hasn’t ramped up production. Don’t blame Washington. Blame Wall Street.
Energy
March 2, 2022
Exxon’s Russian Exit Ends a Messy, Prosperous Friendship
After Putin met Tillerson, billions were made, but at what cost?
Politics & Policy
February 17, 2022
One Candidate Shows Her Breasts. Another Dies Tragically. A Third Is Accused of Graft.
The campaign for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, usually a low-profile affair, is getting more attention—and that’s a good thing.
Energy
February 14, 2022
How Texas Is Rescuing Europe From the Russians
An energy crisis on the Continent has it desperate for help from the Permian natural gas it had earlier spurned.
Energy
February 1, 2022
It’s February. A Freeze Is Coming. Will the Texas Grid Fail Again?
State leaders did little to prevent future blackouts, but ERCOT should have the electric supply to meet skyrocketing demand this week—so long as there are no major system failures.
Environment
January 20, 2022
The Mystery of the West Texas Geyser Deepens
Turns out the Permian Basin well that's been blowing briny water 100 feet high isn't the well the Railroad Commission thought it was.
Energy
January 18, 2022
The Texas Electric Grid Failure Was a Warm-up
One year after the deadly blackout, Texas officials have done little to prevent the next one—which could be far worse.
Energy
January 12, 2022
A Forgotten Oil Well Births a 100-Foot Geyser in West Texas
The salty water spewing high on a Crane County ranch could be a sign of a “whack-a-mole” future in the Permian Basin.
Energy
January 6, 2022
This Gas-Burning Power Plant Near Galveston Bay Could Change the Future of Clean Energy
NET Power says it can deliver zero-emission electricity to the Texas grid, but is its sustainable-energy business sustainable?
Health
December 6, 2021
It’s Hard Out Here—Way, Way, Way Out Here—for a Medic
Oil-field medics face long hours, grisly accidents, desolation, and low pay. So why do they do it?
Business
October 8, 2021
Why Tesla Is Moving to Texas
Elon Musk’s company aims to transform the energy business. So, of course, it’s relocating to the energy capital.
Energy
September 24, 2021
Natural Gas Prices Are Surging. Why Aren’t Texas Drillers Taking Advantage?
The state’s shale fields are quiet, keeping supply tight and energy bills higher.
Energy
September 12, 2021
Fracking Has a Bad Rep, but Its Tech Is Powering a Clean Energy Shift
Texas start-ups are harnessing know-how born of the shale boom in pursuit of a greener future.
Business
August 26, 2021
Elon Musk Wants to Sell Texans Electricity
Tesla has filed to become a Texas power retailer in a move that could shake up an already fast-changing market.
Energy
June 18, 2021
Is There an “Ethical” Temperature at Which to Set Your Thermostat?
It’s a question we are once more forced to ponder—and one for which we have an answer!