Texas Workers Face Mounting Dangers In The Heart Of America’s Greatest Oil Boom

The Permian Basin, a region spanning west Texas and eastern New Mexico, is the once and future heart of the greatest oil and gas boom in American history, a frenzy of production triggered by the introduction of new technologies like fracking and horizontal drilling in the 2010s. But the push to bolster fossil fuel production is heightening concerns among oilfield workers and first responders about the mounting dangers facing workers and Permian residents. About 30 Texas workers per year (or more than two per month) die of poison gas, explosions, blunt force trauma or vehicle crashes. The death toll is higher still on the region’s roads, where drivers race their oilfield cargo back and forth on long shifts.