The topic of exporting US oil – or minimally processed condensate – was one of the hottest at the EIA’s energy conference, which kicked off yesterday in Washington DC. “John Auers, executive vice president of the engineering firm Turner, Mason & Co., said rulings by the U.S. Commerce Department allowing two Texas companies to sell minimally processed oil overseas represent a major opening for the U.S. energy industry, and not simply a technical tweak to existing rules.” [Wall Street Journal]

Wage growth in Houston topped all other cities in the nation in the second quarter thanks to oil & gas sector pay growth, according to PayScale data. “Whatever the dominant industry in the metro area is, that’s what’s going to drive wages in the city,” said Katie Bardaro, lead economist and analytics manager for Payscale, in an interview with Fuelfix on Thursday. “But even for people not in that industry, you’ll still see wage growth, because money is still cycling throughout the local economy.” … If a city’s dominant industry slides, the metro will generally see a decline because all of the city’s other industries aren’t benefiting from a trickle-down effect, “compounding that factor,” she said. [Fuel Fix]

Here’s a fun one about a house in Austin, Texas that generates more energy than it consumes. “All of these elements – insulation, orientation, geothermal, a radiant barrier and many more – combine to help the Bijanskys use very little power. But that still doesn’t make their house a power source. That’s where several solar panels on their roof come in.” [NPR’s State Impact]