b'W ILDCATTERSAREWHATTHEOLDSCHOOLOIL- New world demands on the electricity grid dont include the natural growth of the MEN WERE CALLEDthe ultimate entrepreneurial pio- countrymore homes, schools, shopping centers, and hospitalsas well as our in-neers who set out in search of their fortune, often with littlesatiable need to out-do our own showmanshipthe Sphere in Las Vegas is bound to more than a strong hunch that black gold will surge free frombe the first of many such wonders, yet to be installed in a city near you and sucking its prehistoric prison, thousands of feet beneath the surfaceup enough electricity to power 21,000 homes.of our beloved Texas. Captain A. F. Lucas was a mining engi- In America, about 40% of our electricity is produced using natural gas, a proportion neer from Louisiana who set upon drilling oil wells in the southeast corner of Beau- that has remained steady since 2018coal-powered plants, however, have declined mont in 1900, at the infancy of the American petroleum industry and in a year duringfrom just less than 30% of U.S. electricity production, to just more than 15% during which Texas produced 844,000 barrels of crude of the countrys 23 million total. the same time period. Nuclear accounts for a steady 20%, and wind power has in-Decades before legendary wildcatters Sid Richardson and Clint Murchison madecreased modestly from 7% to 10%. The real question today is what sources will lead their marks in the Texas oil industry, Captain Lucas Spindletop field proved thatus to the 25% increase in electricity production that we are projected to need over immense reserves set ready to be discovered and ready to transform the economy ofthe next decade, and with American optimism stronger than ever over our economic Texas from one based on cattle ranching and agriculture, to one based on mining ourfuture, that demand could be much greater than what we are currently prepared to natural resources. On January 10, 1901, Spindletop No. 1 erupted with a 100-foot- fulfill, and it could be needed much sooner than anticipated. high geyser of crude that spewed 75,000 barrels-a-day for nine days, before it was capped. At todays average price of $70 per barrel, the modern equivalent would beIn the weeks since the second election of President Donald Trump and his promise $5.25 million in product per day, or almost $2 billion per yearall from a single well. of strong federal support for the energy industry, Texas Governor Greg Abbott made Texas oil production spiked to 4.4 million barrels in 1901, and 17.2 million in 1902.major announcements on the subject of electricity production, with the ground-In three short years, a dynasty of wealth and security was born for our great state,breaking of two new natural gas power plants and the release of a report from the which has since evolved into a pillar of Americas independence and freedom. Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group, which was formed to create a The basic economics that drove the first Texas oil boom a century ago are amaz- roadmap for the state to become a world leader in nuclear energy production. ingly unchanged today, at what could be the dawn of a new energy boom for theLet us remember that the road to progress is lined with the casualties of complacen-United States, Texas more precisely, and the Coastal Bend specifically. Electricitycy. The Arctic ice storm that hit Texas in February 2021 exposed the poor manage-demand has already exceeded our countrys capacity to produce it and transfer it,ment and insufficient capacity of the states power grid, forcing week-long blackouts and next generation technologies like quantum computing, which drives Artificialfor millions of customers, along with a reported 246 deaths. The biggest producer of Intelligence (AI), cryptocurrency mining, and gargantuan-sized electric vehicleswind energy in the U.S., Texas failed to require the winterization of wind turbines, like Teslas Cybertruck and GMs new line of electric Hummers, are setting off powerwhich froze up in the Arctic temperatures. Some elected officials seemed amazed to shortage alarm bells throughout big industry. learn that freezing cold countries like Sweden, Germany, and Denmark manage to Constellation Energy recently announced its plan to reactivate one of the nuclearkeep their wind-powered lights on during the winter months.reactor units at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, the site of the countrys worst melt- NO SINGLE FACTOR AFFECTS THE PRICE OFEVERYTHINGmore than down of a nuclear power plant, back in 1977, which sparked a national movementthe cost of energy, labor being the close and interchangeable second. When the cost away from nuclear energy in the U.S. Up to 835 megawatts of electricity will be gen- of energy tracts upward, so too will wholesale and consumer pricesand regardless erated, the principal buyer of which will be Microsoft, to power its new AI servers.of what either political party claims, depending on which is in power, the executive 46THECOASTALBENDMAGAZINE TheCoastalBend.com'