Keith W. Maxwell of Spark Energy, joins McCombs Finance Professor Jay Hartzell, Craig Cordola, CEO of Memorial Hermann Hospital -Texas Medical Center in Houston, and Greg Peters, CEO of Zillant, to take a look ahead at not just the national economy as a whole, but also at the state of Texas. The U.S. is now the world's largest producer of hydrocarbons, because technology has enabled us to produce “tight” oil, or shale oil, Maxwell said.