Business and Transportation
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Interstate 10 near Van Horn, Culberson County. Photo by Robert Plocheck. |
Texas Economy: Recovering from a Great Recession
The Texas economy, which joined the nation in recession in fiscal 2009, began adding jobs again at the beginning of fiscal 2010. Recovery from the nation's worst recession since World War II has been lukewarm compared to other economic recoveries.
However, Texas gained 129,100 jobs during fiscal 2010. This is about 30 percent of the 431,300 jobs lost from August 2008 to September 2009. Even with slower expanison than usual, Texas accounted for more than half of the nation's 229,000 jobs added in 2010.
Not only did Texas add more jobs than any state over the year, but it also led in the rate of job growth among the 10 most populous states (five of which lost jobs over this period) as well as having faster growth than all but four of the other 40 states. . . .
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Oil and Texas: A Cultural History
For Texans, the 20th century did not begin on January 1, 1901, as it did for everyone else. It began nine days later, on Jan. 10, when, spurting drilling pipe, mud, gas and oil, the Lucas No. 1 well blew in at Spindletop near Beaumont.
The gusher spewed oil more than 100 feet into the air until it was capped nine days later. With that dramatic fanfare, Texas’ economy was wrenched from its rural, agricultural roots and flung headlong into the petroleum and industrial age. . . .
Toll Collections in Texas
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• Texas Aviation Statistics
From the Almanac
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The Horse Hollow wind farm in Nolan and Taylor counties. Photo by Robert Plocheck. |
Wind Energy Continues Expansion
Texas continues to lead the nation in installed wind capacity and generation. In 2008, Texas increased its wind capacity by 65 percent, reaching 7,427 megawatts, and its wind generation by 80 percent to 16,225 thousand megawatthours. California is second in installed wind capacity.
With Texas' significant increase, wind generation was responsible for four percent of total electricity generation in the state.
By the end of 2008, U.S. installed wind capacity had grown to 24,651 MW, enough to power more than 5 million homes based on their average household consumption in 2006.
The Texas plains continues to see rapid growth in wind farms, while more recently expansion has begun offshore on the Gulf Coast.
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The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state’s largest power grid, is responsible for ensuring the reliability and adequacy of the electric grid, it makes capacity calculations to determine if it will have sufficient generating capacity on the grid.
Wind power is variable and ERCOT historical wind generation data reveals that there is often less wind blowing on summer afternoons that coincide with peak electrical demand.
For planning purposes, ERCOT determined that in the future, it can count on just 8.7 percent of its installed wind capacity to alleviate Texas’ peak summer demand. It also notes that conventional generation must be available to meet forecast load and reserve requirements.
Source: State Energy Conservation Office, Austin, 2011 and other sources.
