Energy
February 1, 1985
Texas Primer: The Oil Depletion Allowance
Assailed by presidents, skewered by senators, decried by the New York Times, the oil depletion allowance has survived it all. It helps to have friends in high places.
Energy
Reporting and commentary on the Texas energy industry and innovations shaping its future
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Energy
October 1, 1984
Feasting on the Oil Glut
So you think that OPEC controls the price of oil and that the glut is hurting everybody in the oil business? Wrong. Traders on the international spot market are pulling the strings and getting rich in the process.
Energy
September 1, 1984
Texas Primer: The Permanent University Fund
In 1883 the University of Texas got stuck with two million acres of West Texas scrubland. Then it hit oil, and the money started rolling in.
Business
August 31, 1983
The Big Con
From his early days in Big Spring, Eugene Anderson wasn’t what he seemed; neither was the mysterious element he later claimed turned water into fuel.
Energy
June 30, 1983
The Journeyman
Ed Jones rode the oil boom to a white-collar job. It was a short trip.
Energy
June 30, 1983
And Yet the Dream Endures
Don’t give up! There’s still money to be made finding oil. Up in Graham the Creswells are striking it rich with the help of Jesus and, er, creekology.
Energy
June 30, 1983
Ask Jett Rink
The quintessential wildcatter fills you in on free enterprise and Texas after oil.
Energy
June 30, 1983
The Gambler
Jack Young was the eighties’ oil boom in the flesh. Unfortunately, he also personifies the aftermath of the bust.
Energy
March 1, 1983
Texas Primer: The Right-angle Pump
West Texas was a desert when this little irrigation device came along. Now it’s a desert that produces more cotton than anywhere else in the country.
Energy
October 1, 1982
“It’s Time To Make a Deal”
The inside story of Boone Pickens’ adventures in the Wall Street merger game, featuring action, suspense, drama, a few laughs, and a special guest appearance by President Ronald Reagan.
Business
February 1, 1981
Old Oil: The Ranger Revival
Ranger was the most romantic field in the early oil boom. Now a major company is risking its future to prove that romance still lives.
Energy
February 1, 1981
Oil Boom ’81
The glory days of the oil industry aren’t over; they’ve only just begun.
Energy
July 1, 1980
Profits? What Profits?
Reading Big Oil’s annual reports for the truth about profits is a little like drilling for oil in the Baltimore Canyon: you know it’s there, but how deep will you have to go to find it?
Energy
August 1, 1979
Ten Giant Steps to Disaster
How did we get into this sorry energy mess? By making sorry decisions.
Energy
August 1, 1979
I Solve the Energy Crisis
Or, how we can all stop worrying and learn to love the crunch.
Energy
March 1, 1979
Psst . . . Have I Got a Deal for You!
Oil is a slippery business.
Energy
December 1, 1978
The Friends of Cloyce Box
With friends like these, Box’s company didn’t need enemies.
Energy
December 1, 1978
So You Want to Be Chairman of Exxon?
How the world’s largest corporation decides who will make it to the top—and who won’t.
Energy
October 1, 1978
Working the Rigs
Show us the hardest working man in Texas and we’ll show you a roughneck.
Energy
August 1, 1978
Labor Pains
Second-generation refinery workers don’t believe in politicians or corporations and some of them don’t believe in unions. The question is, do they believe in strikes?
Business
April 1, 1978
Daddy’s Money
The feuding over H. L. Hunt’s vast fortune is a family affair, and what a family!
Business
July 31, 1976
Let’s Make a Deal
When Dad Joiner signed away all his oil leases to H.L. Hunt, all the cards weren’t on the table. Some were still underground.
Energy
April 1, 1976
Did You Hear The One About The Farmer’s Daughter?
A strip-mining company made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.
Energy
May 31, 1975
The Deadly Smell of Success
A new method of oil recovery means more energy, more wealth, and . . . death.
Energy
April 30, 1975
Power Politics
How Coastal State Gas pulled the plug on the Texas consumer.
Politics & Policy
January 1, 1975
The Best Show in Town
Here’s the plot for the legislature’s 140-day run, opening soon.
Energy
January 1, 1975
A Place in the Sun
Can Texas still make it as a nation? Can Dolph Briscoe make it as a sheik?
Energy
November 1, 1974
The Wildcatter’s Wildcatter
Glenn McCarthy still roars like a lion.
Energy
November 1, 1974
The Lonely Search for Oil
Of doodlebugs, boll weevils, rockhounds, and wildcatters.
Business
January 31, 1974
Running Out of Gas
The energy crisis has caused a crisis of nerves for the Chicken Littles of Wall Street.