Tag Archives: Eagle Ford Shale
In Big Spring, a Rural Community Braces for Another Oil Bust
As oil prices plummet, the petroleum industry’s benefits and drawbacks for small towns are on full display.
Sometimes Big Spring is a boomtown. Sometimes it’s a bust. And usually, the defining factor is one simple number: the price of a barrel of crude. The commun...Read More
A New Study Shows that the Oil and Gas Industry is Wasting a Shocking Quantity of Natural Gas in Texas
Frackers are burning millions of dollars worth of natural gas — releasing hazardous chemicals and greenhouse gases into the air, worsening climate change and creating health risks.
A new study by researchers at the University of Southern California and San Francisco State University found that oil and gas operators in South Texas burned al...Read More
State of Texas: Bottom of the Barrel
A by-the-numbers look at a struggling Texas oil market. Oil and gas operators have begun pulling back, and boomtowns are busting. Many are losing jobs....Read More
Best of the Observer 2015, Day Ten: Hooked on Hooks
Settle in this holiday season with a few staff-selected favorites from the last year. We'll be counting down with one story a day from now till the end of 2015....Read More
The Holdouts
Three families who took a pass on the fracking boom — and what it cost them
These are the stories of three Texas families who were willing to walk away from thousands of dollars—and battle loved ones, their communities and their gover...Read More
The Next 60: Living at the Edge of Change
Less obvious was the border as a place, home to millions of people charting a future within the paradox that is the border—desperately poor but highly lucrati...Read More
Studies: Links Between Fracking and Smog Pollution Stronger Than State Claims
New research suggests that pollution from fracking contributes a much larger share of Dallas-Fort Worth’s smog problem than state officials have said. ...Read More
Investigation Reveals Scale of South Texas’ Toxic Air Pollution Problem
An eight-month investigation of fracking-related air pollution in Texas' Eagle Ford Shale finds that vulnerable citizens remain exposed to toxic emissions....Read More
