Oil prices are higher than they’ve been in years, but Houston isn’t celebrating.
In decades past, Texas’ largest city and the broader state economy would get a sugar rush from $100-a-barrel oil, even if the rest of the country was struggling with higher costs. The war in Iran has changed that dynamic, and Texas has changed, too.
U.S. oil companies haven’t announced major plans to increase their production, which means there won’t be a big jump in employment or investment from the price spike. And higher fuel prices could serve as a drag on the economy. While AAA showed Texas gasoline prices about 32 cents below the national average Sunday, they were still up more than 30 percent from a year earlier.
“The war would have to look like it’s gonna go for a long time before it would stimulate the local economy,” Steven Craig, an economist at the University of Houston who studies the Texas business climate, said in an interview. Meanwhile, he said, “higher gasoline prices are taking money out of people’s pockets.”
