GONNA NEED AN AWFUL LOT MORE IMMIGRANTS:

The Permian's impact on global oil markets, the U.S. economy, and Donald Trump's agenda has already been profound. The U.S., the world's biggest consumer of crude, now imports less oil than at any time since 1968, when Richard Nixon won the presidency. That's enabled President Trump to conduct foreign policy with a freer hand than predecessors hamstrung by dependence on Middle Eastern producers. Consider his sanctions on Iran. "Today the U.S. has its own petrodollars," said Harold Hamm, the billionaire CEO of Continental Resources Inc. and a Trump confidante, on a conference call with analysts in August. "We're seeing the current administration embrace this more and more every day, realizing the importance of it."

Texas and New Mexico will account for a third of the entire world's growth in oil supply next year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The payoffs are already visible. Texas has logged 21 consecutive months of job growth tied to the oil industry. And while oil and gas accounts for only about 1.3 percent of the nation's economic output, that statistic is up a third from 2008.

The Permian, however, is also showing signs of overheating. Sand, which is used to prop open the fractures in rock that allow the oil to flow, has become a precious commodity that fetches about $60 a ton. Truck drivers command salaries of $150,000 a year. Getting a child into day care "is like you're scalping tickets to a Rolling Stones concert," says Jessica McCoy, a mother in Midland, Texas, the Permian's unofficial capital. 

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