The Lone Star State is king of the oil and gas drilling boom. Over a quarter of all the active drilling rigs in the world are in Texas. That prosperity is not without cost, nor does it benefit every Texan.
Fracking and horizontal drilling have cause the surge that has brought money, jobs, and more energy security to Texas and the United States, but it’s also damaged roads, increased traffic and accidents, strained local governments, and caused housing prices to skyrocket reported Terrance Henry for StateImpact Texas.
How the boom is leaving some communities behind is the focus of an article from the New York Times.
“Though the boom has helped produce fortunes for some and comfortable lives for many, for others it exists within a rural landscape of unpaved streets without garbage pickup, where few dare to drink the tap water because it tastes and smells like chlorine,” Manny Fernandez and Clifford Kraus write.
In a video accompanying the story in the Times, you can see how an influx of industry and profit has caused more hardship for those already stuck in poverty.
You can read the full story, ‘Boom Meets Bust in Texas: Atop Sea of Oil, Poverty Digs in,’ from the New York Times.
