Yeah, and 2010 showed the same trend as 2000, cities and their immediate suburbs are growing, while rural areas are struggling to sustain a population. The only constant is that representation, being a fixed number since the depression for some unknown reason, has made rural districts and states have an incredibly outsized representation on the federal level, which leads to the distortion and dysfunction of our political process currently.
Yet those fixed representors are dispersed based on population, which is why Nebraska has 3 and California has 53. The real cause of the issues with our current political process is the narrow ideology two party system that is very much fostering an "us vs them" mentality.
That is a symptom of the problem. You increase the amount of representation tenfold and abolish the senate, you would have representatives that actually represented their districts and could vote online instead of being in Washington. Let there be one or two major legislative weekends where all 4,350 representatives come to the district to make coalitions, or better yet have committee meetings in the communities, states, regions, where the coalitions are formed. This will objectively show the real popular support of political ideologies than any other action.
There's no evidence that would occur, if anything coalitions would be formed on a regional economic basis, not by a state or political basis. Political identity would be aligned with local politics and issues, not a manufactured national identity that the major political parties do now.
Which is more of a ingrained historical preference enjoyed by them, but the popularity of the major political parties are not anywhere near acceptable, so there is no reason to dismiss a change towards real community representation when citizens can actually see their representation has grown.
Again, this is a historical preference both the republican and democratic party have enjoyed over the century, but it isn't some immutable truth in our democracy, a sweeping change like the one proposed would definitely give other political parties and coalitions a voice.
Sooner or later, OPEC countries will stop holding back production. Especially when US shale oil production kept increasing.
Demand worldwide is expected to slow down even more due to stricter emission regulations in Europe (no surprise) and China (this one surprised even me). It is part of the reason that Volvo is going full electric by 2019. It is getting tougher to meet the new stricter emission threshold limits.
Keep in mind ND is not the only state in this situation. There are about a dozen states in the US whose economy is tightly tied to Oil/Gas.
Another little extra.
During the third annual Tight Oil Reservoirs California 2014 conference in Bakersfield, Chevron and Santa Barbara County-based Santa Maria Energy showcased technological advancements that have made working in the diatomaceous formations of western Kern county safer and cleaner.
The diatomites are so named because of the tiny marine organisms (diatoms) deposited millions of years ago in western Kern County and Santa Barbara County. It is relatively shallow rock formation. The most common technology is called cyclic steaming, also known as "huff and puff," or "steam fracking." The process injects steam at high pressure over a several-day period, lets it soak for a few days and then draws oil from the same well. It was considered a dangerous procedure because steam used in the procedure was rising to the surface and carrying with it oil and rocks that in some cases were flying hundreds of feet away.
Chevron claimed that they have come up with solutions to the problem. Petroleum engineer Ramon Elias, a vice president at Santa Maria Energy, said that using new procedure his company has experienced almost no seeping at its project in Santa Barbara County.
Elias said California's diatomites could contain as much as 80 billion barrels of oil, though he estimated their reserves at closer to 25 billion. The production cost? $10 per barrel.
800k more Texans voted for Democrats this time vs 2012, while Republicans only gained 100k.
That's a fairly significant jump.
In addition to the much faster growing urban centers, which tend to be blue (Ft. Worth being an exception, but even Ft Worth is more moderate than the rural communities)
It's what happens when you live in a bubble. To them it seems like everyone is a leftist, because they only associate with leftists. It's exactly why Clinton strictly stuck to leftist friendly areas during her campaign. Texas isn't about to become blue because you have a few tech workers moving in... In fact, those people will more than likely come to see how Texas does things right when it comes to taxes and regulations. Jobs are moving to Texas because Texas is good for business. If anything happens Texas will likely just become more libertarian.
What will make us more blue is if out current shitheads in Cruz, Abbot, and Patrick insist on pushing social conservatism over economic conservatism. Not to mention the insistence on getting into local business because "we must protect conservative citizens. Liberals though, screw them".