Sunset along Interstate 37, somewhere north of Corpus Christi, Texas: Twilight falls with just a couple of golden clouds left to remind the traveler of the show a few minutes earlier as the sun performed a picture-perfect day's end. The first points of light pop out of a darkening sky. The stars at night really are big and bright, here in the heart of Texas. But wait-not all of those twinkling lights are out in the cosmos. Quite a few seem terrestrial. Some outline drilling rigs making hole into the night. Off to the right a lazy flare is poking above some processing equipment. No galaxy this: A bright field of lights ahead frame a brand-new rail yard built to handle frac sand. We're out in the oil patch. Not just any field, we're driving through perhaps the brightest star right now in Texas' energy firmament-the Eagle Ford. It's hard to believe five years ago the only lights to be seen out here at night really were stars.
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