Interesting points (and mesmerizing map) in Brad Plumer's post on why the employment/economic picture is better in some states than others, based on a Goldman Sachs analysis. Plumer lists the reasons:

1. Energy. "States that are linked to the oil and natural gas industry do particularly well in maintaining employment," Plumer writes, "among them Alaska, Texas, Wyoming and North Dakota (which boasts a 3.3 percent unemployment rate)." More on North Dakota, here.

2. States with limited exposure to the housing bubble.

3. States with lots of high-end service jobs.

Plumer's conclusion? "Yet another reason why housing policy seems to be the most fruitful place to look for ideas about how to pull the country out of its slump."

Housing policy? Of course (insert sarcasm here). Why opt for No. 1 when... more »

North Dakota celebrated its 60th year of oil production yesterday. On April 4, 1951, Amerada Corp. struck oil in Clarence Iverson's wheat field near Tioga, which eventually led to North Dakota becoming the 4th largest oil producing state in the country.

Over the intervening years, the process of producing oil in North Dakota and elsewhere has advanced markedly. American ingenuity and investments by the oil and natural gas industry have fueled innovations making it possible to find and produce oil and natural gas in rock formations that were deemed too difficult to locate and assess or too dense to drill a few years ago.

With today's oil and natural gas innovations:

• The industry is using steam to melt oil as thick as a hockey puck in underground formations and coax it to the surface.

• It... more »

Did you know that drilling rigs can walk? At least this one can. It's the ECO-Pad being used by Continental Resources Inc. to drill for oil in North Dakota.

The 800,000-pound rig walks on hydraulic feet between drill sites up to 100 feet apart. Rather than creating a four-acre drilling pad for each well, the rig's portability makes it possible to drill four wells from the same drill pad. That greatly reduces the amount of land that must be disturbed for drilling.

It also saves time. Usually it takes about one week to dismantle and move a rig to the next drill site. With the ECO-Pad, the rig can walk to the next drill site in about two hours.

A few years ago, many drilling companies began setting rigs on rails to slide them to the next hole. This practice ha... more »

During the first Clinton presidential campaign, adviser James Carville reportedly placed a placard on the wall that said, "The economy, stupid." His point was clear. The key issue for voters that year was the economy.

This year the nation is facing a similar situation. The United States is struggling to overcome the worst recession since The Great Depression, and economists say the sputtering recovery is not producing new jobs. Some 15 million Americans are out of work.

Despite the dismal statistics, there are portions of the country where plenty of jobs are available for workers who want to drill for and produce oil and natural gas. Statistics show that energy-producing states have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

North Dakota, for example, boasted an unemployment rat... more »

As we've mentioned on this blog many times, energy development is a primary driver of job creation. Developing the nation's abundant oil and natural gas resources could create tens of thousands of additional jobs.

A new Gallup poll proves this point and demonstrates that energy-producing states are among the best in job creation.

North Dakota has been breaking oil production records and sits atop Gallup's Job Creation Index. The Index also shows that the "energy-producing states of Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas are in the top 10 state job markets for the first half of 2010, as they were in 2008 and 2009."

Alaska, another state where energy development is crucial, made the list in addition to Pennsylvania and West Virginia--two states that saw 57,000 new jobs last year from Marcellus Shal... more »