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There never was a non-extraction economy in West Texas. The place is empty. Some cattle. Fire ants. And the occasional SS retiree living in a mobile home in the

There never was a non-extraction economy in West Texas. The place is empty. Some cattle. Fire ants. And the occasional SS retiree living in a mobile home in the middle of nowhere (such as the lady highlighted in the article). Weep over the rainforests. Weep over the wetlands. Heck, you can even weep over the drained swamps. But, spare your tears for West Texas... there is NOTHING you could do to that terrain or ecosystem that wouldn't be an improvement over the wasteland that it now is.

p1esk 8y ago
How about weeping over natural gas flaring equivalent to daily exhaust emitted by about 2.7 million cars?
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  It's a temporary thing. Once the number of LNG liquefaction plants in North America more than doubles, NG will be worth collecting for export to markets that pay more than domestic buyers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LNG_terminals#North_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LNG_terminals#North_Am... The oil market is much more globalized than NG.
adrianmonk 8y ago
There are other industries. There's wind power, which has been doing well and probably will continue to. And there's agriculture on irrigated land, which isn't a new thing but never went away. The US is the world's top exporter of cotton, Texas produces more cotton than any other state, and West Texas is the center of that production. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_production_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_production_in_the_Unite... and http://cotton.tamu.edu/funfacts.html http://cotton.tamu.edu/funfacts.html .)
village-idiot 8y ago
> Weep over the rainforests. Weep over the wetlands. Heck, you can even weep over the drained swamps. But, spare your tears for West Texas... there is NOTHING you could do to that terrain or ecosystem that wouldn't be an improvement over the wasteland that it now is. You’re making up an argument I didn’t make.

p1esk 8y ago

How about weeping over natural gas flaring equivalent to daily exhaust emitted by about 2.7 million cars?

Scoundreller 8y ago
It's a temporary thing. Once the number of LNG liquefaction plants in North America more than doubles, NG will be worth collecting for export to markets that pay more than domestic buyers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LNG_terminals#North_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LNG_terminals#North_Am... The oil market is much more globalized than NG.

adrianmonk 8y ago

There are other industries. There's wind power, which has been doing well and probably will continue to. And there's agriculture on irrigated land, which isn't a new thing but never went away. The US is the world's top exporter of cotton, Texas produces more cotton than any other state, and West Texas is the center of that production. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_production_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_production_in_the_Unite... and http://cotton.tamu.edu/funfacts.html http://cotton.tamu.edu/funfacts.html .)

village-idiot 8y ago

> Weep over the rainforests. Weep over the wetlands. Heck, you can even weep over the drained swamps. But, spare your tears for West Texas... there is NOTHING you could do to that terrain or ecosystem that wouldn't be an improvement over the wasteland that it now is. You’re making up an argument I didn’t make.