America's oil bust

Falling oil prices and frozen credit are slowing production and piling up equipment. Now some worry we’re setting ourselves up for another price spike.

BRADFORD, Pa. (CNNMoney.com) — Six months ago this oil town in Western Pennsylvania was booming. You couldn’t find a worker to paint a house, let alone man a drill rig. The nearby oil fields buzzed with activity as high prices drove a production frenzy.

Now this boomtown’s bustle is as quiet as the surrounding late-winter forest.

The collapse in oil prices from over $147 a barrel has caused many oil producers to pack up their rigs and stow their jacks. Some fear the drop in production activity will lead energy prices to spike once the economy recovers.

“We’re not drilling right now,” said Willard Cline, who has run the small Cline Oil Company since 1946. “The low price of oil is slowing it up.”

CNN