LOL @ "Natural gas is the only economic driver in Pennsylvania!" (Oklahoma: credit, hotels)

[Craziaskowboi]

So my mother is a FOX News junkie. Last night she was watching Mike Huckabee's show, and they had some Congressman from Oklahoma on to talk about the energy industry and job creation. He talked a bit about the copious natural gas reserves in Pennsylvania, but then ruined it all by saying that it was "literally the only economic driver" providing jobs in the state. Apparently he's not an expert on anything happening outside of Oklahoma.

[fisheye]

I thought that gambling was our only economic driver!

[Ohiogirl81]

And I thought it was corruption.

Oh, and sorry about your mom.

[PeterRabbit]

From what I understand a lot of these jobs went to Oklahoma residents. Why aren't our people being hired?

[alphamale]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

From what I understand a lot of these jobs went to Oklahoma residents. Why aren't our people being hired?

Because they know how to drill.

The jobs weren't "handed out" as you imply.

[pman]

for some parts of the state that's probably true, just not for the state as a whole

[PeterRabbit]

Originally Posted by alphamale

Because they know how to drill.

The jobs weren't "handed out" as you imply.

Learn English! I didn't imply anything.

[rugerjitsu]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

From what I understand a lot of these jobs went to Oklahoma residents. Why aren't our people being hired?

yep, alot of jobs went to people from Oklahoma and Texas...these workers uprooted themselves and their families to come be apart of the biggest Shale play in the US...reason being, like the previous poster, is they have experience and could git the ground running.

however, there are plenty of jobs being grabbed up by locals as well...many of them are training or have been training for a job in the Marcellus, so expect as time grows, more and more locals will be hired on to replace some of the workers from down south who decide pack up and go back home.

[sp2007]

Isn't it more likely that these newly trained PA gasmen, will simply join the nomadic professional gas industry and just move on to the next project?

[NYisontop]

I wouldn't expect a conservative Oklahoma congressman to grant that Pennsylvania has anything more going for it than natural gas. It's one of the leading drivers in his state and he's more than happy to see those dividends returned to Oklahoma corporations and incomes earned returned with Oklahoma drillers after the wells are dug.

Realize I'm coming to this thread a bit late (it was at the top of a 'similar threads' link, sorry), but there won't be that much training for locals for the drilling jobs. Just as there wasn't much training for Alberta or Venezuelan locals from multi-nationals, the companies are happy to pay high rates to attract nomadic drillers as the industry itself is migratory. The locals get residual jobs in the service industries, a spike of increased business as the hotels fill up and lots of houses are rented for a year or two, then those markets cool off as less boots are needed on the ground. Eventually locals are trained to maintain equipment and hired to drive trucks but the once the boom is over and the wells are tapped, the economic fervor slows. North Dakota is on its second boom, but the first short one was short, and after it ended the region returned to painstakingly rural, wealth stripped and with little lasting economically to show for it.

It's too bad Pennsylvania couldn't invest in its own companies to safely extract. There's no rush, the shale has been around for millions of years, I think it'll still be there tomorrow. These resource giants have a miserable history with local communities, are tied to board members and stock-holders, and have no interest in the long-term viability of their industry to the community. Doesn't anyone look back at the oil boom of the late 19th/early 20th century in the Northern Tier and the western half of the state? So it's not quite 'free-market' to shut out outside bidders, or regulate them highly with mandates for local hiring, training and best practices. What do we value more, unfettered capitalism, or community? If I hear another person mention it's 'not the America I grew up in'.. ahh.. well, no, it's not. We sell your America to the highest bidder. We oversell what capitalism does and undercredit what our communities could do, but that is another tangent