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Industrywide Issues | Jobs

Some Welding Jobs in Marcellus/Utica Fetch $120K per Year
November 3, 2014November 3, 2014

If you’ve been out of school a couple of years and you’ve been trained to weld pipelines–and you’re willing to work long hours in tough conditions–it’s not out of the question that you can earn $120,000 per year, according to speakers at a recent meeting at West Virginia Northern Community College (WVNCC). Educators recently met at WBNCC to discuss job opportunities in the Marcellus/Utica Shale. The biggest challenge the industry has in attracting hordes of would-be new employees?…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

IL Study Finds Marcellus Shale Created 45K Construction Jobs
October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

The director of the labor education program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Robert Bruno, recently published recently published a new study titled, “Study of Construction Employment in Marcellus Shale Related Oil and Gas Industry” (full copy embedded below). The study looks at natural gas/Marcellus Shale employment data from 2008-2014 for parts of OH, PA, and WV. The study found that the number of jobs for electricians, plumbers, welders, equipment operators and laborers–skilled people who work with their hands–went through the roof because of the Marcellus Shale. Over 45,000 new construction jobs linked to the Marcellus were created. In one year, from 2012-2013, spending in the Marcellus area on construction and maintenance grew over 60%!…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Statewide WV | West Virginia

WV Shale Jobs Make Slight Increase, Wages Up Avg $2,400/Year
October 15, 2014October 15, 2014

According to the 2011 West Virginia Horizontal Well Control law, the Dept. of Commerce’s Workforce West Virginia agency is required to file an annual report detailing the number of jobs created (or lost) in the shale drilling industry in the state. The report is due by Nov. 1 each year. Last year, the 2013 report showed a big jump of 20%, with wages going up $5,500 in just one year–to $75,580 (see Looking for a Job in the Marcellus? Think WV). A lot of WV’s employment is tied to building pipelines. The report for 2014 is fresh out. What does it show? It shows 1,100 more people found jobs in the industry this year–however, many pipeline projects ended and with them, jobs working on those pipelines. In the end, according to the report, only 69 net new jobs were created throughout the industry over the past year when you add the new workers and take out the temp jobs now ended. However, the average wage for all workers in the oil & gas sector in WV went up again–another $2,400 per year…
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Dominion Energy | Economic Impact | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pipelines | Statewide VA | Virginia

Enormous Benefits for All Virginians from Atlantic Coast Pipeline
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

The typical low information person (someone who reads headlines only, never bothers to think deeply about economics or politics) assumes when a new pipeline project is announced that the only entity to benefit is the pipeline company and maybe gas drillers who will sell their commodity by moving it through that pipeline. Such people could not be more wrong. Take the recently announced 550-mile, $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline project from Dominion (see Dominion Commits to Major New Marcellus/Utica Pipeline Project). Most of that pipeline will travel through Virginia. What, precisely, will be the economic impact of that project on ALL Virginians? Glad you asked…
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Air Quality | Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

WRI Plan to Save the World from Carbon & Methane in 5 Easy Steps
October 13, 2014October 13, 2014

Another save the world fantasy report has just been released by the World Resource Institute (WRI). According to a new “study” titled “Seeing is Believing: Creating a New Climate Economy in the United States” (full copy embedded below), if you just wave the magic wand of government and create regulations to restrict carbon and methane, the world will be a better (cleaner) place, and it will cost us all a lot less. That’s the theme of the report. Complete fiction and fantasy–but then, we all like a good story, right? One helpful recommendation: capping so-called emissions of carbon (the stuff you breathe out with every breath) in 9 northeast/mid-Atlantic states will create 16,000 jobs and pump $1.6 billion into the economy. Only in liberal la la land do these kinds of statements get taken seriously. Another one: “Cost-saving” measures can reduce “waste” in existing natural gas systems, saving 25% of the methane that gets “leaked” into the atmosphere. Just adopt the EPA’s draconian rules that call for dry-seal centrifugal compressors, low-bleed pneumatic devices, and install infrared cameras everywhere to detect and repair leaks. Price tag? According to WRI, just a few measly pennies per thousand cubic feet of natural gas. No sweat. Again, only in liberal la la land do these conditions exist…
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Alternative Energy | Erie County (NY) | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

NY Gov. Cuomo Backs Billionaire Solar Guy Over Fracking
October 9, 2014October 9, 2014

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is about to direct $750 million of taxpayer’s hard-earned money to go to Elon Musk, founder of Paypal and Tesla Motors, a man whose net worth is $11.7 BILLION. Why? It’s Cuomo’s crony capitalism move to get Musk to build a manufacturing plant near Buffalo that will produce (don’t laugh) solar panels. Can anyone say “Solyndra”? Cuomo is hoping to buy ~~votes~~ Upstate NY jobs with his latest sleazy move. Meanwhile, if Cuomo would only open the state for hydraulic fracturing, he wouldn’t have to spend a dime of taxpayer money to create thousands of new jobs and lift the standard of living for everyone in Upstate. Instead, he prefers to steal from already-poor taxpayers and reward the super rich. Here’s more on the latest travesty unfolding in NY…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

Failed Drug Tests Continue to Keep Ohioans from Utica Shale Jobs
October 6, 2014October 6, 2014

Back in January 2013 MDN brought you the story of why more Ohioans (instead of “foreigners,” as Gov. John Kasich calls them) don’t work in the flourishing Utica Shale industry (see Why More Ohioans Don’t Work in Utica Shale Industry? Drugs). As the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program executive director Rhonda Reda puts it, it’s not an “unemployment” issue, it’s an “unemployable” issue. Apparently it’s not getting any better. If anything, the drug problem is getting worse…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA | Wildlife

Snake Handlers in Demand in the Marcellus
September 24, 2014September 24, 2014

You may have thought snake handling was something done in tiny fringe churches tucked away in the backwoods of Appalachia. Think again. Snake handlers, or wranglers, are very much in demand in the Marcellus Shale to protect oil and gas workers on location, and to protect the snakes themselves–Timber rattlesnakes, a candidate for the threatened species list. Drillers and pipeline companies have to jump through many hoops to drill a well or lay pipeline. MANY hoops. One of those hoops is to ensure their work does not unduly harm a threatened or endangered species, plant or animal (called T&E in the business). When it comes to rattlesnakes, drillers call in the specialists to handle them…
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Anti-Drilling/Fossil Fuel | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Regulation | Statewide PA

Antis Take Aim at PA Drillers for Not Hiring Enough Minorities, Women
September 15, 2014September 15, 2014

We seriously wonder if PBS reporterette Marie Cusick, who writes anti-drilling diatribes on the Pennsylvania StateImpact website, has ever, herself, visited a Marcellus well pad. How else could she write an article pejoratively titled “Gas drillers still ignoring law to include women and minorities”? MDN has visited pads a number of times–and the thing that stood out to us was the number of women suited up in overalls working in the dirtiest jobs on the drill site. But let’s not let reality destroy a good work of “journalistic” fiction…
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Economic Impact | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research | Supply Chain

API Research/List of Shale Supply Chain Companies for PA/OH/WV
September 10, 2014September 10, 2014

Important new research has just been released by the American Petroleum Institute on the role of supply chain businesses in oil and gas. In particular, not only how many such businesses exist–but who they are, by name. MDN has glanced through the report and has pulled the writeups for Pennyslvania, Ohio and West Virginia (all three below). The research shows that the oil & gas industry in PA is contributing $34.7 billion to the economy each year–a staggering number. The average salary for a PA worker is $48,785–but the average salary for o&g workers in PA is $78,898 per year. Similar numbers are found for both OH and WV as well…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Research

Fact: Unemployment Lower in States with Fracking
July 31, 2014July 31, 2014

Bernard Weinstein is a researcher and the associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business (in Texas). According to new research being touted by Weinstein, it’s a proven fact that states with active shale drilling–like Texas and Pennsylvania–saw faster economic turnarounds after the recession in 2008 when compared to those who have no drilling activity, like New York. In fact, the unemployment rate in Texas is the lowest of any large state–5.1%–while New York’s unemployment statewide remains stubbornly high–at 6.7%. The unemployment rate is even higher in Upstate New York, where Marcellus Shale is abundant and would be an economic miracle if allowed to proceed…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Statewide PA

MSC Releases Annual Workforce Survey: Marcellus Continues to Hum
July 29, 2014July 29, 2014

Another 2,000 new Marcellus jobs are being added this yes–in 2014–by Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) members according to the latest annual Marcellus Workforce Survey conducted by the MSC. The latest survey (full copy of results below) is increasingly hiring skilled workers in engineering and construction. High-paying skilled jobs accounted for 26.5% of all new hires last year in the Marcellus Shale. And there’s lots more where that came from…
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Butler County | Deep Well Services | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Pennsylvania | Supply Chain

PA Snubbing Company Expands by 50 Jobs in Just 3 Months
July 22, 2014July 22, 2014

Another supply chain success story: Thanks to the Marcellus and Utica Shale, the only “snubbing” company located in Pennsylvania, Deep Well Services (DWS), has hired 50 new workers since May. By the end of this month they’ll have 128 employees on the payroll–almost all of them in PA, WV and OH. That’s more than 100 jobs added since 2012–thanks to shale drilling. Oh! What’s “snubbing” you ask?…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Supply Chain

Shale Gas Adding 150K New Supply Chain Jobs by 2020
July 8, 2014July 8, 2014

The Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance (EEIA), a trade association representing the companies and people that provide contractor services, equipment, materials and labor to shale oil and gas exploration and production, infrastructure, transportation and processing, says a new report shows that shale gas production through 2020 will create an additional 150,000 new supply chain jobs in the U.S. The EEIA also says if the U.S. government gets its act together and approves more LNG export facilities, that would create another 10-20,000 additional jobs…
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Makes $150K Grant to Union to Train Utica/Marcellus Welders
July 7, 2014July 7, 2014

More highly skilled (and highly paid) welders will be on the way soon in the Utica and Marcellus Shale thanks to a $150,000 training grant by the State of Ohio to the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 396. The grant, from the Governor’s Office of Appalachia, will train (or retrain) 40 union welders over the next one year. The money will put Ohioans back to work by working in the gas fields (no “foreigners” need apply). Here’s the official announcement:
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Industrywide Issues | Jobs | Ohio | Statewide OH

OH Dem Gov Candidate Tries to Outdo “Foreigner Hunter” Kasich
July 3, 2014July 3, 2014

This is interesting. We didn’t even know there is a governor’s race in Ohio this year. The OH race is probably not newsworthy because the Democrat running against John Kasich doesn’t stand a prayer of a chance. Most polls we checked have Kasich trouncing his opponent–Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald–by at least 10 points. However, what’s interesting and noteworthy is that FitzGerald is trying to out-foreigner hunter the foreigner hunter himself, Gov. Kasich. You may recall MDN labeled Kasich “the foreigner hunter” back in 2012 after he started his jingoistic talk labeling out-of-state experts who work on some of Ohio’s drilling rigs and in the Ohio Utica Shale as “foreigners” (see OH Gov. Kasich Continues Trash Talk Out-of-State Workers). Such talk is unbecoming a governor and unbecoming a supposed conservative–and we continue to point it out. Well it seems Democrat FitzGerald is even more extreme than Kasich…
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