This week the price of oil went below zero. Today the price is up into the positive range but still not high enough for most Texas oil producers to make a profit.
The future of the Texas oil industry is unknown. In the short term there are going to be massive losses, bankruptcies and lay-offs. In the long term it’s not a certainty that there is much of a future for shale oil.
The drop in demand from the global down turn triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the over supply of crude in the global market means it’s going to be a long time before Texas sees another oil boom – if ever. By the time Texas could see a stable oil market it’s likely that the realities of climate change and innovations in battery storage and clean energy will have taken hold.
Still there are many in the oil industry that are expressing cautious optimism that one day the sun will shine again on the Texas oil patch.
Todd Staples is a former Texas Agriculture commissioner and currently is president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association.
Emergency COVID-19 Response
In the COVID-19 outbreak first responders are on the front line helping people struck down by the virus while still keeping communities safe.
Fire departments across Texas are developing ways to keep their fire fighters and Emergency Medical Personnel safe and helping those who do test positive for Coronavirus.
Since 2007 Charles Hood has served as the fire chief of the city of San Antonio. Fire departments across Texas are dealing with keeping communities and their personnel safe.
1918 Influenza Poems
Something we often hear about the COVID-19 Pandemic is that it is unprecedented and that there is no playbook to follow. But have you ever found that in literature and art, we can in fact find resonance and guidance we can’t really find any place else? It’s often said, that we read to know we are not alone. Texas Public Radio contributor Yvette Benavides understands this fact well. In her latest commentary, she shares a collection of poems by Melanie Faith called This Passing Fever: 1918 Influenza Poems that has helped her find the ineffable connection that literature always offers.
This Passing Fever: 1918 Influenza Poems is a collection of poems by Melanie Faith. The 2017 book is published by FutureCycle Press.
Yvette Benavide is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Our Lady of the Lake University. She is the co-author of the book San Antonio 365: On This Day in History published by Trinity University Press.
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