Joe Wertz
Joe was a founding reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma (2011-2019) covering the intersection of economic policy, energy and environment, and the residents of the state. He previously served as Managing Editor of Urban Tulsa Weekly, as the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Oklahoma Gazette and worked as a Staff Writer for The Oklahoman. Joe was a weekly arts and entertainment correspondent for KGOU from 2007-2010. He grew up in Bartlesville, Okla. and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.
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An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 hit Oklahoma on Saturday morning. StateImpact Oklahoma reporter Joe Wertz talks about earthquakes and their connections to oil and gas production.
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Aubrey McClendon, one of the pioneers of the shale oil revolution in the U.S. died in a car crash Wednesday at age 56 years. McClendon was indicted Tuesday on charges he conspired to rig the bidding process on oil and gas leases in Oklahoma.
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Low energy prices are good for consumers but bad for some businesses — and the states that rely on them. Oklahoma lawmakers say there may be a "revenue failure" soon. The state has a $900 million budget hole.
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Public meetings are underway in Oklahoma and Arkansas to get input on a high-voltage transmission line. The U.S. hasn't added a line like this since the 1970s, but not everyone is happy about it.
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Big-energy states are hoping the cheap oil is just a blip. In Oklahoma, the head of a catering firm delivering food to oil field workers worries that "$40-a-barrel oil? It's going to shut everything."
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The state produces a lot of energy, but environmentalists and the oil industry are joining to combat wind power companies as they try to expand.
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StateImpact Oklahoma's Joe Wertz reports on a new study that links a "swarm" of earthquakes to four specific, high-volume oil and gas industry disposal wells. It's one of several reports that show oil and gas activity could be causing a rise in earthquake activity.
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Four years of crippling drought has withered the agricultural economies of Great Plains states like Oklahoma. The USDA forecasts this year's wheat crop will be half what it would be in a good year.
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As Oklahoma enters its fourth year of sustained drought, some farmers expect the harvest to be so bad they'll end up calling their insurance agents and declaring this year a total loss. StateImpact Oklahoma's Joe Wertz reports that some are calling this the worst drought since the '50s — or even since the Dust Bowl.
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For the past three decades, the state averaged about 50 quakes a year. Last year, there were almost 3,000. Some geologists say the state's oil and gas industry might be to blame for the increase.