To the Point
What's Happened to North America's Oil Boom?
The price of crude oil has dropped by 50 percent in the past year. Shell won't be exploring for oil in the Arctic Ocean after all. In the Gulf of Mexico, leases for new oil wells aren't selling. Tens of thousands of workers are being laid off, from Texas to North Dakota to Central Canada. Hydraulic fracking equipment is lying idle.
By Warren Olney • • 34m ListenThe price of crude oil has dropped by 50 percent in the past year. Shell won't be exploring for oil in the Arctic Ocean after all. In the Gulf of Mexico, leases for new oil wells aren't selling. Tens of thousands of workers are being laid off, from Texas to North Dakota to Central Canada. Hydraulic fracking equipment is lying idle. Is it just another decline in a boom-and-bust industry or the beginning of the end of the oil economy? What's the immediate impact on the American consumer?
Warren Olney
former KCRW broadcaster
Andrea Brody
Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast
Sarah Sweeney
Vice President of Talk Programming, KCRW
Christine Detz
Producer, 'To the Point'
Severin Borenstein
faculty director, Haas Energy Institute at UC Berkeley
Deborah Yedlin
Calgary Herald
David Wethe
Bloomberg News