Energy

North Dakota Bucks the Recession

Posted on December 6, 2008 by Eric OKeefe

The rest of the U.S. may have fallen into a recession, but at the north end of the Great Plains a robust economy and a tight labor supply is keeping North Dakota humming. Unemployment rate? Holding steady at 3.4 percent. New…

Chesapeake Gets $3+ Billion Injection for Marcellus Shale

Posted on November 24, 2008 by Eric OKeefe

So the bottom has fallen out of the energy markets and commodity prices are dropping even lower. Next step? Time to welcome the overseas investors. Remember, folks, we’ve got trillions of dollars of assets tied up in land, and all…

Slowdown Forecast for Texas Land

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Eric OKeefe

Ag economists at Texas A&M are predicting that the red-hot Texas land market will lose its sizzle next year. Since 2003, land prices have increased an average of 14.5 percent annually, and with the median price statewide approximately $2,300 per acre, that…

Top Ethanol Producer Files For Bankruptcy

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Eric OKeefe

One of the leading stories of 2008 has been skyrocketing commodity prices and the corresponding surge in land values throughout the Midwest, Great Plains, Southwest, and other mineral-rich areas of the country. Although the bubble has by no means burst, there…

Tagged with: Alternative energy, biofuels, corn, Farming, Midwest, VeraSun
Posted in Energy, Eric OKeefe, Farming, Feature, Midwest, News Desk, Regional News, Topics

JOE Reports 3Q Loss

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Eric OKeefe

Florida’s largest private landowner, The St. Joe Company, reported a third quarter net loss of $19.2 million (21 cents a share) on Tuesday. JOE’s President and CEO Britt Greene cited the global financial crisis and the dowturn in the Florida.…

68,000-acre Onyx Ranch in California Sells for $48 million

Posted on October 16, 2008 by Land Report Editors

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning on a huge transaction in California: the 68,000-acre Onyx Ranch in the Sierra Nevada Mountains just outside of Bakersfield sold for $48 million ($705 per acre) to a joint partnership of the CIM Group, a…

Native Americans Harvest the Wind

Posted on October 10, 2008 by Eric OKeefe

Each Friday I scan the Escapes section of The New York Times for an urban take on life in the hinterland. But the keeper in today’s Times was not in the Escapes section but in National: Felicity Barringer’s report on how the 29,000 Rosebud…

T. Boone Pickens: The Land Report Interview

Posted on October 1, 2008 by Eric OKeefe

Join Land Report Editor Eric O’Keefe as he goes behind the scenes with the legendary Texas oil man on his Roberts County ranch and in his quest to wean America off foreign oil.

Tagged with: Bobby Stillwell, Boone Pickens, Chris Busbee, energy policy, Eric O'Keefe, Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, Madeleine Pickens, Mesa Vista Ranch, Pickens Plan, Roberts County, solar energy, Ted Turner, Texas Panhandle, The First Billion, Wind Belt, wind energy
Posted in 2008 Fall, Energy, Eric OKeefe, Feature, Hunting, Minerals, News Desk, Southwest, Water

Shuttered Texas Silver Mine to Reopen?

Posted on September 5, 2008 by Land Report Editors

First it was ethanol and the price per acre in the Corn Belt. Then oil and gas began propping up land values in mineral-rich areas such as the huge shales found coast to coast. Now other commodities are driving other…