A Selection of My Articles, Videos, Podcasts & Graphics
“A Misuse of the Law”
How a Right-wing Texas Think Tank Ducked Its Property Taxes
A Deposed Lawmaker’s Lament: Slander, Corruption and Lies
And a trip to the gun safe.
Farewell to One of the Fathers of Fracking
Claude Cooke loved the oil and gas business—and worked to address some of its shortcomings.
Nobody here but us pelicans.
Hundreds of Abandoned Oil Wells Are Rotting Away in Texas Bays
Under overcast skies, a four-seat propeller plane took off from an airstrip south of Houston for a routine patrol of the area’s waterways… Read the story here.
Just a couple of thirtysomething oilmen.
Drill, Millennials, Drill
Many millennial and Gen Z workers have turned away from careers in fossil fuels—making Midland-based Permian Resources an anomaly. Read more.
Courtesy of Tesla
Elon Musk Came to Texas to End the Oil Age
…He speaks in a clipped, angular accent that is as far from a drawl as Johannesburg is from Austin. Yet he projects a fittingly Texan sense of ambition and audacity…. Read more.
Russell Lee, 1939 (Courtesy of New York Public Library)
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE OLD-FASHIONED TEXAS OILMEN?
The Texas oilman has changed a lot in the past year. For instance, he isn’t always a man anymore. Read my essay.hly.com/news-politics/what-happened-to-old-fashioned-texas-oilmen-oil-boom/
On a Drilling Rig
After a Lifetime of Drilling, One Final Well
On a farm outside of Flatonia, Texas, Mike Shellman drives his final well. He is a man in his element, taking a last lap and enjoying every second. Read more…
Dan Patrick Demanded Texas Divest From BlackRock. But He Kept His Shares.
Jan & Dan Patrick
The lieutenant governor said that by shifting its investments toward renewable energy, the asset-management company was “capriciously discriminating against the oil and gas industry.” He didn’t mention his own holdings with BlackRock. Read more…
Texas to Bitcoin Miners: Come on In, The Grid is Nice
Our state struggles to serve Texans’ needs on the hottest and coldest days. So why are we welcoming the energy-hogging cryptocurrency industry? Read more…
The Massive Methane Offshore Leak You Never Heard About
Nearly 200 oil and gas platforms rise from Texas bays and state waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Most are decades old and decades past their prime. Many have been abandoned by owners. One sprang a large gas leak that exposed weak state oversight. Read it.
FRONTLINE/PBS Three-part docuseries
I consulted on this three-hour docuseries, and appeared in parts. Below is a link to the third and final hour.
The Texas Electric Grid Failure Was a Warm-up
On Feb. 15th, 2021, a massive blackout spread across Texas. I spent months examining what happened — and why it could happen again. Read it.
Frozen cacti.
The Permian Basin’s New Geyser
A plugged and abandoned oil well has come back to life, spouting a 100-foot geyser. Chevron pledges to clean it up.
Thar she blows!
The Dead Sea of West Texas
Why does no one want to take responsibility to stop a well that has been leaked noxious salt water for almost two decades?
Lake Boehmer is beautiful, but don’t drink the water.
In Praise of . . . Enron?
Twenty years have passed since the notoriously corrupt energy-trading company collapsed. Maybe it’s time to acknowledge that it wasn’t all bad for Texas.
I podcast, therefore I am - R. Descartes (1642)
An interactive graphic
Carmakers are retooling to make electric vehicles on the premise that their battery-powered motors are cleaner than gas-burning engines. But are EVs really better for the environment? A close look at all the factors shows they are—but it’s a complex answer with some asterisks.
A rusty pumpjack.
As Texas Went Dark, the State Paid Natural-Gas Companies to Go Offline
As a winter storm attacked Texas in February, the state’s grid operator made a last-ditch attempt to avert mass blackouts. The move ended up constraining natural-gas supplies needed by power plants, a Wall Street Journal examination shows.
‘A Failure of Texas-Size Proportions’—State Debates How to Overhaul Its Power Market
Two months after blackouts paralyzed Texas, most of the people who participate in the state’s 19-year-old electricity market, including producers, sellers and traders, share a similar view. The freeze wasn’t a one-off event. The state’s power market needs to change.
Meet Tim Dunn, the billionaire oilman who runs Texas.
My Brief Career as a Paid Propagandist
I signed up to post Pro-Ken Paxton tweets. I quicky regretted my choices.
Dam It?
The Witliff Collections
An oil executive wants to block the South Llano River for private recreational purposes. Hill Country residents are outraged.
Downtown Midland, with horizontal wells shown
The Craddicks’ Gushers of Cash: How a Powerful Texas Lawmaker and a Key Regulator Profit From the Industry They Oversee
The Craddick family business mixes oil and politics, and business is good. Last year, the Craddicks’ mineral interests in hundreds of wells across seventeen counties entitled them to profits from an ocean of oil that, based on prevailing prices, generated about $10 million. What’s more… Read more.
A follow up! The Craddicks were also getting paid for orchestrating deals, in one case about $650,000 for a couple phone calls. Read about it.
Bruno, rig dog extraordinaire
The amazing story of Bruno, the dog who loves oil rigs.
Good help can be hard to find in the oil patch these days, which is why Bruno stands out. He has a sunny disposition and doesn’t complain when shifts run long. He’s intelligent and a good problem solver. Read more…
Photo courtesy of Matthew Busch (www.matthewbuschphoto.com/)
The West Texas Rancher Exposing Big Oil’s Buried Secrets
When a plugged well came back to life on her ranch, Ashley Watt began asking questions. The answers she found could change the Permian Basin. Read it.
Exxon’s Russian Exit Ends a Messy, Prosperous Friendship
Exxon and Russia’s long relationship started with high hopes for democracy. It’s ending in bitter disappointment, despite the rich rewards both reaped along the way. Read it.
This candidate has a top on.
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. Read it.
I’m sorry Dave, I’m busy watering the tomatoes.
Robots Will Grow Your Salad
A well-funded Silicon Valley start-up is building a greenhouse that resembles the offspring of a farmer’s vegetable patch and an Amazon fulfillment center. Read more.
Fracking Has a Bad Rep, but Its Tech Is Powering a Clean Energy Shift
Several Texas companies are repurposing fracking to build better geothermal wells and even a newfangled below-ground battery.
The Battery Is Ready to Power the World
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries were first commercially used in hand-held camcorders in 1991. Laptops soon followed and then phones. After a decade of rapidly falling costs, the battery has reached a tipping point. No longer just for consumer products, it is poised to transform the way the world uses power.
The battery is ready for its world-changing closeup…
NASA Landsat image
PG&E: Wired to Fail
The utility has sparked deadly fires and pipeline explosions, left millions of Californians in the dark and gone bankrupt twice in less than 15 years. Here’s what went wrong.
PG&E Corp. Chief Executive Tony Earley liked the idea the minute he heard it. He would change the signature line on company emails—“PG&E is committed to protecting our customers’ privacy”— to promote safety instead.
Six months after a top state regulator suggested it, nothing had happened.
“We have one more level of governance to go through before we can change…
How PG&E’s Aging Equipment Puts California at Risk
Sixteen of the 20 worst lines are in high-risk fire areas. It’s a perilous combination: vulnerable lines in areas turned into tinderboxes by drought.
Hospitals Struggle to Contain Covid-19 Spread Inside Their Walls
The University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago thought it was ready when the pandemic reached its emergency room in early March.
Staff wearing protective gear whisked the first coronavirus patient into isolation, allowing the hospital to stay open for urgent operations. “We have response plans in place to minimize any continued risk to patients, staff or students,” the university said in a campuswide letter.
Those plans were no match for the virus.