The Lone Star State is helping the U.S. become energy independent and that's thanks to fracking in shale gas formations across the state. But Saudia Arabia may need at least a decade to develop fracking to a scale comparable to the u.S. Because of the desert's short supplies of water needed to extract the fuel. It takes an average of about three million gallons to frack a well. Saudia Arabia may hold the world's fifth largest shale deposits behind China, the U.S. Argentina and Mexico. Texas was ordered to temporarily stop issuing new water permits for the Guadalupe, San Antonio and Blanco Rivers that supplies dozens of Central Texas cities, power generators and petrochemical plants to ensure enough water reaches the last migratory flock of endangered whooping cranes. So much water was siphoned from rivers during the 2009 drought that several cranes died because of insufficient water in the coastal marsh where they birds spend their winter. Hail storms in Texas certainly do a lot of damage to roofs on homes but the National Insurance Crime Bureau says questionable claims on roofs are up 50 percent in Texas in 2010. While they are initially prompted by severe weather they may contain falsehoods, exaggerations or downright fraud. El Paso leads the state in questionable claims followed by Arlington and then Fort Worth.
