In 1901, Anthony Lucas struck black gold on Spindletop Hill in Beaumont. The massive gusher, which produced 100,000 barrels of oil that day, instantly made Texas the epicenter of American energy. Since then, oil’s allure has drawn hundreds of thousands of workers to the state, transforming Houston and West Texas’ Permian Basin into global energy hubs in the process.
Naturally, Austin, with its progressive support of green initiatives, is the last Texas town you’d associate with fossil fuels. Whether it’s new resident Elon Musk’s potential to transform the state with a giant battery connected to our energy grid or the city’s rapid transition from gas guzzlers to electric vehicles (EVs), Austin appears increasingly untethered from the state’s oil-rich days of yesteryear.