story first appeared on usatoday.com
Political obstacles to oil and gas production are starting to fall away at the state and local levels as voters, elected officials and courts jump on the energy boom bandwagon.
Voters are rewarding local politicians who support production. Ballot measures are distributing potential tax windfalls broadly. And most state legislatures are focused on managing the economic and environmental consequences of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, so the drilling boom can speed up rather than slow down.
The trend is crucial to the nation's energy future because oil and gas production is regulated and taxed almost entirely by state and local governments. The federal government's role is largely advisory, except on federal lands and on pipelines.
Most states were caught off guard when fracking turned Pennsylvania into a major natural gas producer in 2009. Fracking could produce oil or gas in as many as 36 states. Result: The USA will become the world's No. 1 producer of natural gas in 2015 and oil in 2017, overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia, respectively, predicts the International Energy Agency.
Clearing the way:
Elections. Pro-drilling candidates are winning at the local level, including a sweep in southern New York. It is a hot issue, according to Broome County executive Debbie Preston, who won re-election Nov. 6. She's creating a department to help drillers. The state now has a moratorium on fracking.
Pipelines. The industry is winning approval to build pipelines. Williams Partners. the largest pipeline company, got a thumbs-up Nov. 7 to expand one pipeline and has applied to build another to move natural gas to Boston and New York City.
Even the controversial Keystone XL pipeline from Canada looks more likely. Pro-pipeline Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, winner in North Dakota's U.S. Senate race, predicts federal approval early next year.
Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer Kate Sinding says loopholes in federal law make it hard to stop fracking.
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environment. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Maersk to Add Prius of the Seas With Fuel-Saving Ships
Bloomberg News
A.P. Maersk-Moeller A/S (MAERSKB)’s planned fleet of the world’s largest container vessels will be as groundbreaking for their shape as their size.
The 20 ships will be the first cargo-box carriers with rounded hulls rather than streamlined V-shaped ones, according to Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (042660), which is developing the 18,000-container vessels. The change reflects a shift by operators away from designing ships to go as fast as possible to instead emphasizing fuel economy.
“These vessels will be the Prius of the seas,” said Lee Jae Won, an analyst at Tongyang Securities Inc. (003470) in Seoul, referring to Toyota Motor Corp.’s distinctively-shaped hybrid car. “They’re fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.”
The fatter hulls will let Copenhagen-based Maersk install a fuel-efficient two-engine setup that’s too wide for current ships. It will also recover cargo capacity that is lost with tapered hulls, letting the ships carry 16 percent more boxes than vessels only a few meters smaller. Combined with other technologies, the ships will use about 35 percent less fuel per box than vessels now used on Asia-Europe routes and produce around 50 percent less carbon emissions, according to Maersk.
“The focus now is on how to consume less fuel,” said Odin Kwon, vice president of ship design at Seoul, South Korea-based Daewoo. “Ships currently in operation have been built only with speed in mind.”
Daewoo has begun the initial work for the first of the ships, which will cost about $183 million each. Deliveries are due to start next year and will run until the first half of 2015. Rounded hulls are common on commodity-carrying ships.
Slow-Steaming
Maersk, the world’s largest container-ship operator, is introducing the vessels as the industry contends with tighter emissions standards and fuel prices that have jumped about 40 percent in two years. The higher costs have already prompted shipping lines to slow vessels 18 percent over the past three years to an average speed of about 10.4 knots. That has cut fuel bills and eased global overcapacity that caused industrywide losses last year.
Reducing the speed of container ships by 10 percent can pare fuel consumption by as much as 30 percent, according to ship assessor Det Norske Veritas. A 25 percent reduction can cut carbon emissions by more than 350 tons a day per ship, the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, a shipping group, said in 2010.
Ultra-Long Stroke
Still, these gains are limited by current ships’ focus on speed as they are fitted with engines that operate best when going fast. By contrast, the Maersk vessels are designed to operate efficiently at both high and low speeds.
Key to the change is the ships’ two propellers and their ultra-long stroke engines, a type usually only found in slow- moving commodity ships and tankers. The setup will use 4 percent less fuel than a single engine and propeller, Maersk said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News questions.
“Building vessels that are fuel efficient at different speeds will be the trend,” said Daewoo’s Kwon. “It will eventually dominate the market.”
The Maersk vessels, which will also feature a waste-heat recovery system, will still be able to go as fast as 23 knots. That compares with a top speed of 25 knots for the Emma Maersk, the largest container ship afloat.
The new vessels will be 59 meters wide and 400 meters long. That’s about 3 meters wider and 4 meters longer than the Emma, which holds 2,500 fewer boxes. The limited size increase means major European ports will be able to handle the ships without having to buy new cranes and other equipment. U.S. ports aren’t big enough for such vessels.
Toyota’s Prius, the world’s bestselling hybrid car, is renowned for its distinctive wedge shape. The 2012 plug-in version gets the equivalent of 58 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, according to a U.S. government website.
Evergreen Vessels
Other shipping companies are also adding more fuel- efficient vessels. Evergreen Group, owner of Asia’s second- biggest container line, is introducing twenty 8,452-box vessels fitted with electronic-controlled fuel-injection engines that support slow steaming. The ships, built by Samsung Heavy Industries Co. (010140), will also gain fuel savings from a design that minimizes the need for ballast water.
Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. (NOL) has six similar ships, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. (009540) and Daewoo. STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. is building six container ships that will be the biggest after Maersk’s and which will “significantly” pare carbon emissions, it said in November.
Emissions Goal
Shipping lines are working to meet a goal of cutting emissions 30 percent by 2030 under a mandate from the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization. Those that miss this target will face penalties that are still under discussion.
The regulations will cut carbon emissions by an estimated 330 million tons a year by 2030, the IMO said in a 2011 statement. That will save an average of $50 billion a year in fuel costs by 2020 and $200 billion by 2030, it said. The rules will also stop the industry’s share of global emissions climbing from about 3.3 percent in 2007 to as much as 18 percent in 2050 amid rising trade, it said.
Ship owners may also be able to meet the tougher standards using technologies that can be fitted onto existing vessels. Hyundai Heavy, Daewoo and Samsung Heavy, the world’s three biggest shipyards, have developed devices that clean ballast water to reduce pollution or improve navigation to save fuel.
Hyundai Heavy has also developed a gas engine that can reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent compared with a diesel engine. Daewoo and MAN Diesel & Turbo SE have devised an engine system that uses liquefied natural gas.
Daewoo is also working on a technology that will spray bubbles along the bottom of ships, easing friction and fuel usage, Kwon said. Japanese yard Imabari Shipbuilding Co. said last year that it found 8 percent energy savings testing a similar system.
“It all shows that it’s going to be a fight about who can be the most efficient and make money,” said Park Moo Hyun, an analyst at E*Trade Securities Co. in Seoul. “It’s no longer just about who can go the fastest.”
The 20 ships will be the first cargo-box carriers with rounded hulls rather than streamlined V-shaped ones, according to Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (042660), which is developing the 18,000-container vessels. The change reflects a shift by operators away from designing ships to go as fast as possible to instead emphasizing fuel economy.
“These vessels will be the Prius of the seas,” said Lee Jae Won, an analyst at Tongyang Securities Inc. (003470) in Seoul, referring to Toyota Motor Corp.’s distinctively-shaped hybrid car. “They’re fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.”
The fatter hulls will let Copenhagen-based Maersk install a fuel-efficient two-engine setup that’s too wide for current ships. It will also recover cargo capacity that is lost with tapered hulls, letting the ships carry 16 percent more boxes than vessels only a few meters smaller. Combined with other technologies, the ships will use about 35 percent less fuel per box than vessels now used on Asia-Europe routes and produce around 50 percent less carbon emissions, according to Maersk.
“The focus now is on how to consume less fuel,” said Odin Kwon, vice president of ship design at Seoul, South Korea-based Daewoo. “Ships currently in operation have been built only with speed in mind.”
Daewoo has begun the initial work for the first of the ships, which will cost about $183 million each. Deliveries are due to start next year and will run until the first half of 2015. Rounded hulls are common on commodity-carrying ships.
Slow-Steaming
Maersk, the world’s largest container-ship operator, is introducing the vessels as the industry contends with tighter emissions standards and fuel prices that have jumped about 40 percent in two years. The higher costs have already prompted shipping lines to slow vessels 18 percent over the past three years to an average speed of about 10.4 knots. That has cut fuel bills and eased global overcapacity that caused industrywide losses last year.
Reducing the speed of container ships by 10 percent can pare fuel consumption by as much as 30 percent, according to ship assessor Det Norske Veritas. A 25 percent reduction can cut carbon emissions by more than 350 tons a day per ship, the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, a shipping group, said in 2010.
Ultra-Long Stroke
Still, these gains are limited by current ships’ focus on speed as they are fitted with engines that operate best when going fast. By contrast, the Maersk vessels are designed to operate efficiently at both high and low speeds.
Key to the change is the ships’ two propellers and their ultra-long stroke engines, a type usually only found in slow- moving commodity ships and tankers. The setup will use 4 percent less fuel than a single engine and propeller, Maersk said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News questions.
“Building vessels that are fuel efficient at different speeds will be the trend,” said Daewoo’s Kwon. “It will eventually dominate the market.”
The Maersk vessels, which will also feature a waste-heat recovery system, will still be able to go as fast as 23 knots. That compares with a top speed of 25 knots for the Emma Maersk, the largest container ship afloat.
The new vessels will be 59 meters wide and 400 meters long. That’s about 3 meters wider and 4 meters longer than the Emma, which holds 2,500 fewer boxes. The limited size increase means major European ports will be able to handle the ships without having to buy new cranes and other equipment. U.S. ports aren’t big enough for such vessels.
Toyota’s Prius, the world’s bestselling hybrid car, is renowned for its distinctive wedge shape. The 2012 plug-in version gets the equivalent of 58 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving, according to a U.S. government website.
Evergreen Vessels
Other shipping companies are also adding more fuel- efficient vessels. Evergreen Group, owner of Asia’s second- biggest container line, is introducing twenty 8,452-box vessels fitted with electronic-controlled fuel-injection engines that support slow steaming. The ships, built by Samsung Heavy Industries Co. (010140), will also gain fuel savings from a design that minimizes the need for ballast water.
Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. (NOL) has six similar ships, built by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. (009540) and Daewoo. STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co. is building six container ships that will be the biggest after Maersk’s and which will “significantly” pare carbon emissions, it said in November.
Emissions Goal
Shipping lines are working to meet a goal of cutting emissions 30 percent by 2030 under a mandate from the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization. Those that miss this target will face penalties that are still under discussion.
The regulations will cut carbon emissions by an estimated 330 million tons a year by 2030, the IMO said in a 2011 statement. That will save an average of $50 billion a year in fuel costs by 2020 and $200 billion by 2030, it said. The rules will also stop the industry’s share of global emissions climbing from about 3.3 percent in 2007 to as much as 18 percent in 2050 amid rising trade, it said.
Ship owners may also be able to meet the tougher standards using technologies that can be fitted onto existing vessels. Hyundai Heavy, Daewoo and Samsung Heavy, the world’s three biggest shipyards, have developed devices that clean ballast water to reduce pollution or improve navigation to save fuel.
Hyundai Heavy has also developed a gas engine that can reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent compared with a diesel engine. Daewoo and MAN Diesel & Turbo SE have devised an engine system that uses liquefied natural gas.
Daewoo is also working on a technology that will spray bubbles along the bottom of ships, easing friction and fuel usage, Kwon said. Japanese yard Imabari Shipbuilding Co. said last year that it found 8 percent energy savings testing a similar system.
“It all shows that it’s going to be a fight about who can be the most efficient and make money,” said Park Moo Hyun, an analyst at E*Trade Securities Co. in Seoul. “It’s no longer just about who can go the fastest.”
For more national and
worldwide Business News, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For more local and
state of Michigan Business News, visit the Michigan
Business News blog.
For more Health News, visit the Healthcare and Medical
News blog.
For more Electronics News, visit the Electronics
America blog.
For more Real Estate News, visit the Commercial and
Residential Real Estate blog.
For more Law News, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For more Advertising News, visit the Advertising,
Marketing and Media blog.
For more Environmental News, visit the Environmental
Responsibility News blog.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
EPA Releases Air Pollution Rules
Story first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
The Environmental Protection Agency released long-awaited rules to control air pollution from hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" on Wednesday, marking one of its first efforts to regulate the widely used technique of extracting oil and natural gas.
In releasing the standards, the EPA did offer a concession to oil and natural gas companies by delaying the required use of pollution-control equipment until 2015. Under a proposal unveiled last year, the EPA would have required companies to use the equipment almost immediately.
The industry praised the EPA for giving it more time to comply, but environmental groups said the agency should have been more aggressive with its requirements.
The EPA air chief told reporters Wednesday that a decision to delay compliance was made by agency staff, based on their understanding of the way the industry operated, and was not politically motivated.
Representatives from several energy companies--including ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips--met with EPA and White House officials in recent weeks to try to shape the rule.
The EPA's rule, which affects about 13,000 wells drilled each year, coincides with a massive boom in natural gas production that has created opportunities for fuel switching but has also prompted concerns about air pollution and water contamination.
The President has touted natural gas as a valuable domestic resource that can replace coal for electricity generation and supplant oil as a transportation fuel.
The rules announced Wednesday require energy companies to capture smog-forming pollution known as volatile organic compounds when they "frack" a well rather than let it escape into the atmosphere.
Fracking involves the use of a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to break apart energy-rich rocks. Toward the end of the process, a combination of fracking fluids and gas rush to the surface and can escape into the atmosphere. It's one of the largest sources of air pollution from the energy industry, the EPA has said.
The EPA's rules don't address aspects of the fracking process that could cause water contamination. The agency is in the process of studying the impact of fracking on water, but said recently that it verified the safety of water in Pennsylvania and would do additional testing on water in Wyoming that it previously said appeared to be affected by local fracking activity.
Under the rules announced Wednesday, oil and gas companies will be forced to use "green completion" technology by 2015. Until then, they will be required to burn off emissions by flaring the natural gas, a common industry practice already used by energy companies to reduce pollution.
Flaring was 95% effective in reducing volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
The EPA was under a court-ordered deadline to develop the air-quality rules after being sued by environmental groups that had accused the agency of failing to follow the law. The EPA said its rule will improve the air quality in regions where a lot of oil and natural gas drilling occurs.
While the purpose of the EPA's rule is to reduce VOCs, the standards will also cut methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas. Scientists have recently started to raise questions about the amount of so-called methane leaks from natural gas wells, saying the emissions might make natural gas less friendly to the environment than has been assumed.
In the weeks leading up to Wednesday's announcement, oil and natural gas companies urged EPA and White House officials to delay the green-completion requirements because they said there wasn't enough equipment to go around. Companies would have to line up to use the equipment and stall their production projects until it became available, they said.
Environmental groups said the industry had exaggerated the scarcity of the equipment.
Left to police itself for too long, the oil and gas industry has failed even to adopt pollution controls that pay for themselves.
For more national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
The Environmental Protection Agency released long-awaited rules to control air pollution from hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" on Wednesday, marking one of its first efforts to regulate the widely used technique of extracting oil and natural gas.
In releasing the standards, the EPA did offer a concession to oil and natural gas companies by delaying the required use of pollution-control equipment until 2015. Under a proposal unveiled last year, the EPA would have required companies to use the equipment almost immediately.
The industry praised the EPA for giving it more time to comply, but environmental groups said the agency should have been more aggressive with its requirements.
The EPA air chief told reporters Wednesday that a decision to delay compliance was made by agency staff, based on their understanding of the way the industry operated, and was not politically motivated.
Representatives from several energy companies--including ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips--met with EPA and White House officials in recent weeks to try to shape the rule.
The EPA's rule, which affects about 13,000 wells drilled each year, coincides with a massive boom in natural gas production that has created opportunities for fuel switching but has also prompted concerns about air pollution and water contamination.
The President has touted natural gas as a valuable domestic resource that can replace coal for electricity generation and supplant oil as a transportation fuel.
The rules announced Wednesday require energy companies to capture smog-forming pollution known as volatile organic compounds when they "frack" a well rather than let it escape into the atmosphere.
Fracking involves the use of a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and chemicals to break apart energy-rich rocks. Toward the end of the process, a combination of fracking fluids and gas rush to the surface and can escape into the atmosphere. It's one of the largest sources of air pollution from the energy industry, the EPA has said.
The EPA's rules don't address aspects of the fracking process that could cause water contamination. The agency is in the process of studying the impact of fracking on water, but said recently that it verified the safety of water in Pennsylvania and would do additional testing on water in Wyoming that it previously said appeared to be affected by local fracking activity.
Under the rules announced Wednesday, oil and gas companies will be forced to use "green completion" technology by 2015. Until then, they will be required to burn off emissions by flaring the natural gas, a common industry practice already used by energy companies to reduce pollution.
Flaring was 95% effective in reducing volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.
The EPA was under a court-ordered deadline to develop the air-quality rules after being sued by environmental groups that had accused the agency of failing to follow the law. The EPA said its rule will improve the air quality in regions where a lot of oil and natural gas drilling occurs.
While the purpose of the EPA's rule is to reduce VOCs, the standards will also cut methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas. Scientists have recently started to raise questions about the amount of so-called methane leaks from natural gas wells, saying the emissions might make natural gas less friendly to the environment than has been assumed.
In the weeks leading up to Wednesday's announcement, oil and natural gas companies urged EPA and White House officials to delay the green-completion requirements because they said there wasn't enough equipment to go around. Companies would have to line up to use the equipment and stall their production projects until it became available, they said.
Environmental groups said the industry had exaggerated the scarcity of the equipment.
Left to police itself for too long, the oil and gas industry has failed even to adopt pollution controls that pay for themselves.
For more national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Government Tightens Rules on Gas Drilling
Story first appeared on CNN.
The Presidential administration tightened regulations on the oil and gas industry Wednesday, requiring drillers to capture emissions of certain air pollutants from new wells.
But in a nod to industry concerns that the rules were being enacted too quickly, the Environmental Protection Agency said companies can burn the pollutants at the well head until the start of 2015, when enough equipment is expected to be available to capture the pollution.
The administration said the regulations are part of the President's promise to develop the nation's oil and gas resources in a manner that protects the environment and the public health. The standards are practice, flexible, affordable and achievable.
Exxon's big bet on shale gas
The rule will require all oil and gas companies to capture the volatile organic compounds that are emitted during the final stages of well construction, including during the process of hydraulic fracturing.
That process, known as fracking for short, eases the flow of oil or gas from dense shale rock by injecting water, sand and some chemicals deep into the earth.
Fracking has unlocked an energy boom in the United States, but has also led to concerns about groundwater contamination and earthquakes.
Once the realm of smaller companies, big oil firms such as BP, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are all in on the shale boom.
The equipment used to capture the pollution largely consists of truck-mounted tanks and hoses that separate the gas from the liquids. Currently, that gas is often just released into the atmosphere. Volatile organic compounds are responsible for smog formation. Some are known to cause cancer in humans and other animals.
The equipment will also capture methane released during the well construction process. Methane, the prime ingredient in natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas itself -- 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
Some states, notably Colorado and Wyoming, already require the capture of these gases. EPA's ruling makes it a federal standard. The industry had lobbied to prevent the rule from applying to the hydraulic fracturing process, saying that shale wells generally emit far fewer volatile organic compounds than conventional wells.
America's oil boom - at a cost
Instead, the industry proposed burning the toxic gases and methane from shale wells -- a process known as flaring that is relatively effective in eliminating the pollutants but is not as clean as capturing them.
The industry also wanted an extended timetable to implement the new rules.
EPA's ruling is something of a compromise -- subjecting fracking to the new regulations but giving the industry three years to obtain the equipment and requiring flaring during the interim. Both industry and environmentalists seemed pleased with the ruling.
EPA has made some improvements in the rules that allow our companies to continue reducing emissions while producing the oil and natural gas our country needs. EPA's action today is a breath of fresh air for every man, woman, and child living in the shadow of the gas drilling boom.
For more national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
The Presidential administration tightened regulations on the oil and gas industry Wednesday, requiring drillers to capture emissions of certain air pollutants from new wells.
But in a nod to industry concerns that the rules were being enacted too quickly, the Environmental Protection Agency said companies can burn the pollutants at the well head until the start of 2015, when enough equipment is expected to be available to capture the pollution.
The administration said the regulations are part of the President's promise to develop the nation's oil and gas resources in a manner that protects the environment and the public health. The standards are practice, flexible, affordable and achievable.
Exxon's big bet on shale gas
The rule will require all oil and gas companies to capture the volatile organic compounds that are emitted during the final stages of well construction, including during the process of hydraulic fracturing.
That process, known as fracking for short, eases the flow of oil or gas from dense shale rock by injecting water, sand and some chemicals deep into the earth.
Fracking has unlocked an energy boom in the United States, but has also led to concerns about groundwater contamination and earthquakes.
Once the realm of smaller companies, big oil firms such as BP, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell are all in on the shale boom.
The equipment used to capture the pollution largely consists of truck-mounted tanks and hoses that separate the gas from the liquids. Currently, that gas is often just released into the atmosphere. Volatile organic compounds are responsible for smog formation. Some are known to cause cancer in humans and other animals.
The equipment will also capture methane released during the well construction process. Methane, the prime ingredient in natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas itself -- 20 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
Some states, notably Colorado and Wyoming, already require the capture of these gases. EPA's ruling makes it a federal standard. The industry had lobbied to prevent the rule from applying to the hydraulic fracturing process, saying that shale wells generally emit far fewer volatile organic compounds than conventional wells.
America's oil boom - at a cost
Instead, the industry proposed burning the toxic gases and methane from shale wells -- a process known as flaring that is relatively effective in eliminating the pollutants but is not as clean as capturing them.
The industry also wanted an extended timetable to implement the new rules.
EPA's ruling is something of a compromise -- subjecting fracking to the new regulations but giving the industry three years to obtain the equipment and requiring flaring during the interim. Both industry and environmentalists seemed pleased with the ruling.
EPA has made some improvements in the rules that allow our companies to continue reducing emissions while producing the oil and natural gas our country needs. EPA's action today is a breath of fresh air for every man, woman, and child living in the shadow of the gas drilling boom.
For more national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Natural Parks Attracting Less Young People
Story first appeared in USA Today.
The average visitor to some of the nation's parks and wilderness areas is getting grayer, prompting a new emphasis on getting young people to unplug and head outdoors.
Without a generation of kids who have had good experiences with national parks, then in a very short amount of time, we may not have enough people who care about national parks to keep them going.
For the National Park Service, developing life-long connections between the public and parks — especially for young people — is a priority from now until its 2016 centennial.
Parks change to attract and keep younger visitors
That could be a challenge: A 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that people ages 8 to 18 spent an average of 7½ hours a day on digital media. Last month, a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that three times as many Millennials — born in the 1980s and '90s — as Baby Boomers said they made no personal effort to help the environment.
A "big concern" of the National Park Service is maintaining 21st-century relevance. Visitors ages 16-24 are most under-represented.
The aging of visitors affects wild places across the USA:
•The average age of a visitor to Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area was 26 in 1969, 36 in 1991 and 45 in 2007, says a March report by the U.S. Forest Service.
•The average age of out-of-state visitors to Glacier and Yellowstone national parks in 2011 was 54, says the University of Montana's Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research.
•At California's Death Valley National Park, 49% of spring visitors in 2010 were 46 to 65 years old.
Overall visits to national parks fell in 2011 for the second year in a row. The National Park Service counted 278.9 million visits in 2011, down about 1% from 2010.
Some parks have plenty of young visitors. The Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Ill., attracts about 10,000 students a year.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
The average visitor to some of the nation's parks and wilderness areas is getting grayer, prompting a new emphasis on getting young people to unplug and head outdoors.
Without a generation of kids who have had good experiences with national parks, then in a very short amount of time, we may not have enough people who care about national parks to keep them going.
For the National Park Service, developing life-long connections between the public and parks — especially for young people — is a priority from now until its 2016 centennial.
Parks change to attract and keep younger visitors
That could be a challenge: A 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that people ages 8 to 18 spent an average of 7½ hours a day on digital media. Last month, a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that three times as many Millennials — born in the 1980s and '90s — as Baby Boomers said they made no personal effort to help the environment.
A "big concern" of the National Park Service is maintaining 21st-century relevance. Visitors ages 16-24 are most under-represented.
The aging of visitors affects wild places across the USA:
•The average age of a visitor to Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area was 26 in 1969, 36 in 1991 and 45 in 2007, says a March report by the U.S. Forest Service.
•The average age of out-of-state visitors to Glacier and Yellowstone national parks in 2011 was 54, says the University of Montana's Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research.
•At California's Death Valley National Park, 49% of spring visitors in 2010 were 46 to 65 years old.
Overall visits to national parks fell in 2011 for the second year in a row. The National Park Service counted 278.9 million visits in 2011, down about 1% from 2010.
Some parks have plenty of young visitors. The Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Ill., attracts about 10,000 students a year.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)