Fossil fuels and green energy are natural born enemies. Clean green is saving the planet from a runaway greenhouse gas holocaust while fossil fuels ARE the holocaust…
so the story goes.
However, this wandering photographer found a friendly place in the Permian Basin of West Texas where green energy and fossil fuels live together in peaceful harmony.
It is south of Lubbock.
Old and new oil pump jacks overlooked by nearby electric generating windmills
Oil was discovered in the Permian Basin in the 1930s. The landscape is peppered with still operating pump jacks left over from the original oil finds.
Old oil pump jack
Giant windmill dwarfs a new oil pump jack
Since the 1930s new energy technologies have taken root in the area:
- Wind turbines
- Fracking
- Horizontal drilling
Often, all three are being developed on the same piece of land.
Strong and steady west Texas winds make it ideal to build shiny new windmills for generating electricity. That helped make Texas the largest green energy producing state in the United States.
So who is the boss? Will fossil fuels prevail or will green energy tower over the oil and gas industry? Will close proximity spawn another Hatfield and McCoy feud? Or will they get married and live happily ever after?
Today, new life has been breathed into the old oil fields using fracking and horizontal drilling into the the Cline Shale. That has made Texas the largest oil producer in the US.
But… there is a new sheriff come to town…. horizontal drilling combined with fracking has created a revolution in energy – natural gas.
In amongst the windmills they are fracking for natural gas
Fossil fuels are still king
We have entered the golden age of natural gas.
Natural gas and fracking for oil in vast shale deposits will tide the U.S. over energy-wise until alternative sources finally come into their own.
