This Texas Town Is an Energy Powerhouse. It’s Running Out of Water.
By Benoît Morenne – The Wall Street Journal
September 15, 2025
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—South Texas lured Tesla, along with Exxon Mobil and other energy behemoths, with the promise of land, cheap energy and, perhaps most critically, abundant water.
The companies spent billions of dollars over the past two decades building plants that use huge amounts of water to transform fossil fuels into gasoline, jet fuel and other refined products. More set up shop in recent years to refine lithium for electric-vehicle batteries and crank out plastic pellets. All were drawn to the region by its juicy tax deals, deep-water Gulf Coast port and latticework of pipelines that ferry cheap natural gas and crude oil.
Now, Corpus Christi, the region’s main water provider, says it is tapped out.
A crippling drought is depleting its reservoirs, and the city expects it won’t be able to meet the area’s water demand in as soon as 18 months. In addition to industrial users, the water utility serves more than 500,000 people in seven counties.