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| Map of shale deposits in the United States en.wikipedia.org |
First, I was checking the page view count this morning and I see we're closing in on 8,500 page views. This is so amazing. Thanks. I starting to feel confident that we'll make our goal of 10,000 by April 1st. Keep the great work, you're the best.
Today we're going to address the topic of energy independence and historic preservation. At first glance, the two don't seem related but, if you look at the map on the left, you'll notice that many of the United States' shale deposits are located around rural communities and archeological sites. These deposits contain natural gas and has enabled the U.S.to become the largest natural gas producer, ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia. For the first time, America stands to become an exporter, rather than an importer, of natural gas. The natural gas industry is projected to support more than 1.6 million jobs by 2035. Business is booming but so are concerns for national security and providing a cleaner way to renewable energy.
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| U.S. historic sites map Perry-Castañeda Map Library lib.utexas.edu |
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| gasandpreservation.org |
1) Educate the energy industry about the importance and professional practices of cultural resource preservation
2) Educate the preservation community about the importance and professional practices of energy development and independence
3) Create a collaborative network among energy and preservation leaders and encourage cross-sector support.
4) Celebrate success stories and lessons learned from in-the-field energy experts and preservationists.
(Werkheiser, GAPP, 2014)
To achieve these goals, GAPP has set up four working groups composed of members of both the energy and preservation professions to address specific issues and develop creative solutions. The organization hopes to develop model voluntary practices for the protection of cultural resources, informed by input by both professions. Makes one wonder whose input is going to carry more weight?
Marion Werkheiser notes that this plan is not without its skeptics on both sides. On the natural gas industry side, voluntary standards will lead to regulation. GAPP believes that it can achieve its goals without making new policy and, that industry participation early and throughout the process will circumvent the need for new regulations. There is also the cost factor. Industry skeptic fear that the need to consider historic resources will result in additional time and money to projects. GAPP hopes to find low-cost methods of preserving resources and demonstrate that the cost of ignoring and then destroying resource sites is actually greater than early due diligence. Still other skeptics feel that by joining such discussions, it is an open admission that the natural gas industry harms historic resources or does so in a disproportionate manner to similar industries. Preservationists involved with GAPP understand that there are many industries that whose activities harm resources, however, GAPP is focused on energy industry affects from natural gas development partly because exploration is happening very quickly that the potential for harm is greater than the harm from other industries. GAPP also acknowledges that many companies are already going beyond the call of duty in their legal requirements as a way of risk mitigation and good corporate citizenship.
On the historic preservation side of the argument, some preservation professional are concerned that working with the natural gas industry could lead to some uncomfortable compromises over which sites are "worth saving." GAPP's goal is to protect more, if not all, sites and, yes, compromise will be necessary. GAPP hopes that by having both professions come together it can establish a level of trust and comfort that will lead to good outcomes for both historic and cultural sites. Corporations such as Shell and Southwestern Energy, and preservation organization such as the Society for American Archaeology and the American Cultural Resources Association have taken the lead in GAPP, with high-level executives joining the board of directors and sponsoring an upcoming conference. There leadership is motivating others to join the process and will allow the stakeholders to better manage risk, take the lead on key issues, and prove that people determined to solve problems and bound by a common commitment to compromise can reach a workable solution for the greater good. Eventually, GAPP wants to scale these collaborations to other sectors of the energy industry, including wind and solar energy.
On March 21, 2014, GAPP will hold their Summit 2014 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The organization is inviting preservation leaders and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for a full-day summit aimed at creating strategies to identify and manage historic and cultural sites while encouraging energy resource development and independence. The summit has two objectives: first, encourage domestic energy exploration as a path to political and economic energy independence and job creation. Second, identify voluntary standards that both energy companies and preservation professionals follow to map, avoid, preserve or mitigate thousands of sites from the potentially negative impact of fracking. For more information please go to GAPP's website.
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