Houston at height of power

Amid soaring gas prices and demand for energy, Texas city is crowned the next boom economy

HOUSTON – Not so long ago, a technology boom boosted dozens of Silicon Valley companies and sent them scrambling for employees.

Now, as memories of that local bonanza fade, the northwest shore of the Gulf of Mexico is seeing an incarnation. There, on the strength of energy rather than technology, the city of Houston enjoys the boom of 2006.

Fuel prices have tripled in four years, generating a windfall of profits for this self-proclaimed capital of the energy industry. New office towers, elegant hotels and crowded shopping malls bear evidence of a city riding high.

And steadily increasing worldwide demand for energy — and the growing scale and complexity of new projects needed to boost supplies — promises to keep things going.

Contra Costa Times