It’s not all economic doom and gloom on network news. In fact, NBC gave its July 9 viewers some good news about the Texas economy and suggested the U.S. as a whole might reap the benefits.
A segment on “NBC Nightly News” showed how the price of oil – a little over $137 a barrel – is reviving the economy in parts of Texas that have long been dormant.
“Ask people in Texas about the economy and they’re likely to gush,” CNBC senior correspondent Scott Cohn said on “Nightly News.” “Matt Levisor is making big money refurbishing these west Texas oil wells – abandoned back when oil was cheap.”
The dramatic decline in the housing industry over the past 10 months has cast a shadow over the entire U.S. economy. But according to Cohn, Texas has avoided the worst of the effects in part because of the price of oil.
“[Oil and natural gas are] helping to insulate Texas from the housing crisis,” Cohn said. “Here you don’t just bid for the house, you also bid for the mineral rights below.”
“Largely on the strength of its economy and the rising price of energy, Texas climbs to number one in CNBC’s 2008 rankings of ‘America’s Top States for Business,’ overtaking Virginia for the first time,” Cohn noted. “Texas just passed New York as home to the most Fortune 500 companies – 58. The economy here [is] growing about 4 percent a year – four times as fast as the rest of the country.”
Utah, Idaho and Colorado rounded out the rest of CNBC’s. But if Texas continues to prosper and is able to produce more oil and wealth, it won’t be just Texas benefiting in the long run, but the entire country said NBC.
“For now, Texas’ gain is the rest of the country’s pain,” Cohn said. “But if it means more energy produced at home, the boom in Texas could pay off nationwide.”
According to the Energy Information Administration, Texas is an energy-generating powerhouse. Texas is the leading crude oil-producing state in the United States. Its 25 petroleum refineries can process more than 4.6 million barrels of crude oil per day – accounting for one-quarter of the U.S. refining capacity. The state also leads the United States in capacity for wind-powered energy generation.
