Professor Elam

I believe TAMUSA courses that view the economic situations in the Permian Basin and Eagle Shale Ford would be excellent initiatives. Not only would students experience a sense of the traditional oilfield services and the mechanisms that allow these businesses to make money, but it could also display available entreprenuerial opportunities. For instance, the article claims there is only one store for groceries and gas in the Permian Basin. Could there be a demand for food trucks with a different variety of food in this area? Could TAMUSA students be inspired to calculate break-even point or understand ROI for a new business in this area?

This is understandable. The article creates a completely unrealilstic picture of the Permian Basin. Rather rthan featuring the tall buildings of the downtown Midland skyline or Claydesta Plaza or the new $30 M airport served by SW Airlines, it focuses on the beat down and out communities like surrounding Odessa Midland. 

The reporter must have been determined to put the worst possible face on it as they trekked to Mentone, Texas, the County Seat of Loving County, over one hundred miles west of Odessa, and as it says 130 miles west of Midland.  Loving County is the least populated county in the entire USA. The reason is that there is literally no pottable which means water you can drink, water in the county. So there is one store which is pictured in Mentone, TX. Midland Odessa finally got Metropolitan Statistical Area MSA status in the 1990s.  A city has to have 100,000 population to be an MSA. Neither Midland nor Odessa had that. But together the area had 250,000. The result was a huge influx of chain stores that had previously ignored the area. 

To the right is the relatively new airport terminal, with four gates, served by SW Air and other major carriers.