24 Jun I
Thanx to LMayes the Kirtsy Chicks for shining the spotlight on this Newsweek Article:
THE MONEY CULTURE: Daniel Gross
Houston, We Have No Problems
Houston has become a sort of Silicon Valley for the global energy industry. Urban cowboy? Think suburban geek.
“Exports are rising because Houston has become a sort of Silicon Valley
for the global energy industry. “There’s hardly any oil and gas
production in a 40-mile radius of Houston,” says Mayor Bill White, a
former energy executive, as he held court in the city’s charming art
deco city hall. (Think of a much smaller Rockefeller Center, but
without the tourists.) “It’s the knowledge that has concentrated here
that is driving things.” In 1981, the oil and gas industry was a
domestic, blue-collar one. Today it’s an international, white-collar
one. Oil companies, wind-energy start-ups, consulting geologists and
software developers compose what John Hofmeister, who is retiring in
July as president of Shell Oil Co., calls “this mass aggregation of
people who know what they’re doing in the energy world.” Urban cowboy?Think suburban geek. Houston has 70,000 engineers and architects (a
concentration 60 percent higher than is typical for the United States).The oil boom and weak dollar are boosting demand for their services,
and engineering and construction firms like KBR and Fluor are applying
their expertise to power plants and sewage facilities around the world.”