Energy, The Best Of Texas; Flooding, The Worst Of Texas

EnergyEnergy, The Best Of Texas; Flooding, The Worst Of TexasByIan Dexter Palmer, Ph. , Contributor

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights

Ian writes on fossil energies, climate, and transition to renewables

AccuWeather Texas Energy

Texas is a state where things are big

I recall an oil and gas fessional say that Houston was the friendliest large city in the world

Houston has been called the oil capital of the world, for good reason

Costs of doing, and regulations, are lower in the state than in most other states of the union

More than that, Texas is blessed with oil and gas, resources that are well correlated with economic position the world over

Several years ago, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) announced that the Delaware basin, a part of the Permian basin, contained the largest continuous resources of oil and gas they had ever measured

A smaller part of this, 2 MMbopd, underlies New Mexico

The Permian is the premier basin for crude oil in the U

And one of the best in the world

As a result, in the United States Texas is number 1 ducer of crude oil while New Mexico is number 2

The mighty Permian duces half of total crude oil, and a third of total U

Oil and gas plays in Texas

If it were a country, the state was ranked as fifth largest generator of wind power in the world

Total, Texas duces more wind energy than any other state in the U

MORE FOR YOU Texas Flood

Many of these were camping close to the banks of the Guadalupe River, a beautiful river that people escape from summer’s heat by floating on rafts or inflatable tubes

Flash flood alley region in central Texas

And the deadly disaster of July 4, Independence Day, became the and perhaps the worst

The flash flood alley extends from the border of Oklahoma north of Dallas to San Antonio in the south, and is reminiscent of the infamous tornado alley, an ext pattern of deadly tornadoes that extends from Kansas south to Oklahoma

There are reasons for the flood alley in Texas: the hill country is elevated by several hundred feet above sea level, which forces out water from humid clouds blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico

The region consists of hills that induce rainfall and valleys that concentrate the runoff into rivers the Guadalupe

What makes things worse is that the surface soil layer is thin and washes away rather than soaking up the rain

The flash flood alley implies lots of previous floodings in the area

To give a wider perspective, Texas has the worst flood heritage in the U. , if this is defined in terms of discharge per rainfall area

To be, this is not the whole of Texas, but the local region of the flash flood alley, which has the worst flooding history, not only for Texas, but also for the entire Unites States

One meteorologist said that four large-scale flooding events have occurred in the last 50 years in flash flood alley, and one in 1987 caused the death of 10 campers at a nearby Christian camp

Are The Flood And Energy Connected

Sadly, there are many emotionally-driven outbursts on social media that claim that emissions from the oil and gas industry cause global warming, and this worsens extreme weather events, such as intense floodings

But the second claim is false, and the data confirms this

On a global basis, the four killer weather extreme events (droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, floodings) have not worsened in the past 50 years

Any one of these killer extreme events cannot be blamed on global warming

Further, the IPCC arm of the United Nations the ing U

River floods: “There is limited evidence and low agreement on observed climate change influences for river floods in North America

Based on the peer-reviewed literature and observational records, there is little empirical basis to claim that extreme precipitation has increased in “flash flood alley” (or indeed, most of North America or the world)

Similarly, there is little basis for claims that flooding has become more common or severe. ” One curious coincidence: the BBC presented in just the past few weeks a dinosaur documentary that talks a vast herd of a species called Pachyrhinosaurus that are migrating together

Archeologists have uncovered hundreds, bably thousands, of dinosaur bones packed together in death

Apparently, all the creatures were destroyed together by some immense destructive force

And you guessed it—the experts think it was an extreme flash flood

The flood has been a terrible disaster in Texas

Our thoughts go out to the many families who have lost loved ones, and the remarkable efforts of first-responders who have done their best in rescue efforts

If there’s one lesson to take away, it’s the need for Texas to use its nology might to design better warning systems, such as tornado sirens, for flash floods

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