Joe Wertz
Joe was a founding reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma (2011-2019) covering the intersection of economic policy, energy and environment, and the residents of the state. He previously served as Managing Editor of Urban Tulsa Weekly, as the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Oklahoma Gazette and worked as a Staff Writer for The Oklahoman. Joe was a weekly arts and entertainment correspondent for KGOU from 2007-2010. He grew up in Bartlesville, Okla. and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.
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For the past three decades, the state averaged about 50 quakes a year. Last year, there were almost 3,000. Some geologists say the state's oil and gas industry might be to blame for the increase. -
When the swirling, howling winds of the 1930s Dust Bowl gobbled up farmland from Texas to the Dakotas, the federal government planted 100 million trees to act like a giant windbreak. It worked. But now, after years of drought, those old trees are dying. -
Texas and Oklahoma are fighting over access to the Red River. Fast-growing Texas is eager to fuel its expansion in a time of drought, while the poorer state of Oklahoma is water-rich. The court's decision could impact interstate water-sharing agreements across the country.
