The Promise of America’s Surging Energy Industry
Mary Schaper
Posted November 25, 2013
Boomtown, USA
The Telegraph: The once-sleepy town of Williston sits on the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers in the US state of North Dakota.
Five years ago, Williston had a population of 12,000 and was slowly dying on its feet – an agricultural hub marked out from the plains only by the grain silos that stand silhouetted against the big North Dakota skies.
The fall-out from a brief oil boom in the mid-1980s had left the town with sky-high debts and a main street filled with empty shops and peeling facades. Young people looking for jobs skipped town at the first opportunity.
Today, Williston is booming once again. Its streets are filled with bustling commerce and trucks, its bars, restaurants and supermarkets groaning with customers.
Sudden advancements in the oil drilling techniques known as fracking have reinvigorated the small northern town, its population swelling to an estimated 30,000 as people pour in from across the United States in search of work in hard times.
Read more: http://bit.ly/17NWHRs
More industry news:
- Texas A&M Expands Research on Oil Rig Marine Life: http://bit.ly/1aO5KD8
- Editorial – EPA Sensibly Pulls Back on Federal Ethanol Mandate: http://dallasne.ws/1aTBuWu
- As We Consume More Fossil Fuels, Air Quality Actually Improves: http://onforb.es/1euNJKs
- Marcellus Legacy Fund Delivers $16M for Environmental Initiatives: http://bit.ly/1iLPSEy
- Time to Rethink Ethanol: http://bit.ly/1gct12z
About The Author
Mary Schaper is a Digital Communications Manager for the American Petroleum Institute. She previously worked on Capitol Hill for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee as Digital Director and for Senator Lisa Murkowski. Before coming to D.C., she spearheaded digital strategy for Murkowski's successful Senate write-in campaign in 2010. Schaper enjoys traveling and taking in the local culture alongside her husband, their son and loyal springer spaniel.