Between Carlsbad, NM and Pecos, TX. The landscape has been totally raped by energy production. It’s one thing to sit in a city and say we need more energy. To drive through the countryside, viewing the cost of producing that energy is another thing entirely; the previously wild landscape transformed into a hundred mile sprawling city of oil and gas patches, drilling rigs and dusty roads, pumps, pipelines, gas flares, outbuildings, and sterile man-camps; roads clogged with, and ruined by, oil and gas trucks that outnumber passenger cars two to one, as if this West Texas high desert had no other purpose. You can see from the sky on Google Maps:
It is awful.
The occasional desert resident has an impact on this land. They put down roots, however shallow, in the dry desert soil. They join the land in a battle with the elements; a struggle to survive. Man camps sit on cement blocks above the bulldozed lifeless ground, with no commitment to staying, and no investment in the landscape or the damage done.
My inner Edward Abbey is outraged.
We’re at the Fort Stockton RV Park tonight, an oasis.
It’s 90 degrees and clear. We’re back in Texas and out of the smoke.
Having made the mistake of trying to drive that highway in May, I fully agree. Changed our return plans in order to avoid it.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that!
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