Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has outlined rules for the state to reopen Friday. All retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, museums, libraries, and churches/other places of worship can open with occupancy limited to no more than 25 percent of capacity.
Texas manufacturing took another step back in April as the coronavirus lockdown took even greater hold. A monthly survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas showed contraction worse than that of the Great Recession.
Houston faces as many as 300,000 job losses due to the twin challenges of coronavirus and oil-market chaos.
Southwest Airlines today reported its first loss since 2011. The Dallas-based airline says reduced demand for air travel due to COVID-19 has caused it to park planes and burn through up to $35 million a day.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas says weekly energy use decreased by about 4-5% as the previous week. The sharpest decreases come in the hours between 6 and 10 a.m.