All this gamesmanship aside, however, maybe Brown et al. reacted so defensively because they know that Texas’ economy has been booming while California still struggles with a slow recovery from a deep recession.

Yes, some of Texas’ prosperity is due to the oil boom. In fact, the California region that most resembles Texas – Bakersfield and environs – is also seeing a surge for the same reasons.

But that merely points up the fact that California has vast potential reserves of shale oil that it is moving very slowly, if at all, to tap.

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