Having witnessed the destruction of mighty BP, and jittery in the knowledge that oil spill liability caps are a thing of the past, companies will be doing their drilling by the book.

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Biofuels are big, too: they bring together Texans' knowledge of agriculture and oil.

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But no one, to Buttonwood's knowledge, believes that higher oil prices are a net plus for economic activity.

ECONOMIST: Buttonwood

"Exxon really, really wants it, " says a source with knowledge of negotiations between the Texas oil giant and Ghanian officials.

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Environmentalists say public knowledge of the chemicals can help landowners near oil and gas projects know what types of pollution to test for in their groundwater.

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One is external to the state: the global economy has become a much more knowledge-intensive place, with even the oil business turning into a high-tech industry, so Texas needs more and better universities and schools.

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Texas, for example, which has permitted more wells than any other state, has more real knowledge about the geology, hydrology, and impacts of oil and gas development than the federal government will ever gain.

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Plus, the proportion of the super rich with fortunes made in oil and old-world industries will continue to shrink while those with fortunes from the knowledge economy will continue to grow.

FORBES

America's export boom is likely to be led by firms that are already global in scale and by sectors in which America has a clear competitive advantage: sophisticated, knowledge-intensive capital goods like microprocessors, and high-end services like engineering, oil-production services and even (witness KPF) architecture.

ECONOMIST: Export or die