October 2013 NEWS

How much did the Feds really help George Mitchell?

Ever since President Obama, in his 2012 State of the Union speech, gave the federal government credit for developing hydraulic fracturing,  the idea that the feds underwrote fracking has taken on a life of its own. In response to my recent Texas Monthly article on George P. Mitchell, the... Read More >

The Feds and fracking: A chicken or egg question

With his own “green jobs” initiative falling short and unemployment remaining stubbornly high, perhaps it wasn’t surprising that President Barack Obama touted the benefits of cheap natural gas in his 2012 State of the Union speech. He predicted that the boom unleashed by hydraulic... Read More >

Searching for shale gas answers

George Mitchell's best-known legacies are the hydraulic fracturing strategies that he perfected over decades in developing the Barnett Shale play around Fort Worth, Texas. Now the family-guided foundation of Mitchell, who died in July at the age of 94, is seeking to add to his legacy by tackling... Read More >

Nature: U.T., Mitchell Institute at A&M Astronomers Discover Most Distant Galaxy

Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin may be former football rivals, but the Lone Star State's two research giants have teamed up to detect the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy ever found — one created within 700 million years after the Big Bang. The... Read More >