Just a decade ago West Texas was the very image of a thriving industry. Bobbing pumpjacks dotted the landscape as boomtowns like Midland exploded in a flurry of economic activity and an influx of workers to provide the labor force for the United States’ so-called shale revolution. Now, those boomtowns have gone bust and an ever-increasing number of those once industrious pumpjacks sit idle. The shale revolution was already in steep decline before the pandemic hit, but the novel coronavirus dealt that golden age its coup de grace during what some are now calling “Black April,” when North American oil prices did the previously unthinkable by plummeting below zero. On April 20th the West Texas Intermediate crude oil benchmark ended the day at nearly $40 in the negative. While oil prices have somewhat recovered since, they haven’t seen nearly enough of a rebound to revive the U.S. shale industry […]