Document 9
We’re getting a painful lesson in economic geography. What Wall Street is to money, or
Hollywood is to entertainment, the Gulf Coast is to energy. It’s a vast assemblage of refineries,
production platforms, storage tanks and pipelines—and the petroleum engineers, energy
consultants and roustabouts [oil field workers] who make them run. Consider the concentration
of energy activity. Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico accounts for nearly 30 percent of the U.S.
total. Natural-gas production is roughly 20 percent. About 60 percent of the nation’s oil imports
arrive at Gulf ports. Nearly half of all U.S. oil refineries are there. [Hurricane] Katrina hit this
immense system hard. The shock wave to the U.S. and world economies—which could vary from
a temporary run-up in prices to a full-blown global recession—depends on how quickly
America’s energy-industrial complex repairs itself. . . .
Source: Robert J. Samuelson, “Hitting the Economy,” Newsweek, September 12, 2005
According to Robert J. Samuelson, what is one reason the Gulf Coast is important to the economy of the
United States?