Word: patches
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...scene across America's oil patch these days bears a chilling likeness to the bust that befell the region in the mid-1980s, when energy-production jobs plunged more than one-third. But in fact the situation today is worse. While many parts of the U.S. economy are struggling through the recession, few are as hard hit as energy. By every measure, these are among the toughest times since that first gusher at Spindletop in 1901 -- more akin to the Great Depression than the cyclical booms-and-busts since...
Across the South and West, drilling activity for crude oil is at its lowest point in 52 years. The rig count, the best gauge of life in the oil patch, hovered last week near an all-time low of 660. Production from existing fields has shrunk to its lowest since 1962. Scores of drillers, producers and support firms are laying off, folding up or going bankrupt. Warns Denise Bode, president of the International Petroleum Association of America: "The industry is nearing a state of economic collapse...
Campaigning in the oil patch last week, President Bush responded to the plight -- and political anger -- of natural-gas producers by taking steps to bolster demand. He removed regulatory barriers that have hampered utilities from converting power plants fueled by coal and oil to natural gas. At the same time, Bush lessened restrictions on the sale of compressed natural gas for cars and other vehicles. In Washington, Energy Secretary James Watkins declared, "The worst thing we could do is allow our oil and gas industries to decline the way we have...
...listen to the kind of music you already enjoy? The question is unanswerable. You can patch together a kind of excuse, invoking reasons that can account for the accident by which you discovered your favorite artist or group, but taste can never be ultimately explained. That is why you should try classical music: you can't be sure that you won't like what you hear. Approach what you listen with only one prejudice--that it is probably enjoyable...
Guys like Charles Woods, a 70-year-old Nevada millionaire with World War II burns on his face and an eye patch over one eye. Woods picked up 2862 votes in New Hampshire--good for seventh in the primary and 2 percent of the vote. And Tom Laushlin, the actor from the "Billy Jack" movies who pulled a Reagan and made the move to politics. He got 3251 votes in the Granite State--that's sixth in the primary...