Шейл-Крест США привлекает иностранный бизнес: создание более 100 высокооплачиваемых рабочих мест

Local columns By Greg Kozera 6 min read Last week, Lynnda and I hosted a foreign company we met at SelectUSA who visited our region looking for potential sites for their high-energy manufacturing business. They will create over 100 high-wage jobs. We were their tour guide and chauffeur. We had a full schedule of meetings and site visits. Everyone involved did an excellent job. This company makes several important products the USA currently imports from China. They said, "We are coming to Shale Crescent USA because you have..." * A large and existing market. * A stable operating environment. * Freight cost and time advantage. Making products in the SCUSA is cheaper than importing them. Our customers can reduce their inventories from a 90-day supply to less than 30 days, ending uncertainty of foreign shipments. * SCUSA has connectivity of roads, rail and water. * SCUSA has abundant, dependable, economical energy and other raw materials we need. * Availability of workforce. * Are in the center of customers. * Low tax rates compared to other regions. * Low cost of doing business compared to other regions. Their reasons for coming are based on studies and analysis they did, not our opinions. We can learn from them. Last Saturday, we dropped them off at Greater Pittsburgh Airport for their trip home. Lynnda and I then visited friends and had dinner with my brothers in Pittsburgh. Our family was too large to get an early dinner time at local restaurants. My youngest brother offered to cater the meal and have it at his house, which is a mini farm on top of a hill about 15 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. Instead of a two-hour dinner we had a relaxed five-hour dinner and pleasant visit. Lynnda and I had not seen them all since last fall. At dusk, the deer herds and wild turkey appeared. It didn't bother them that we were having dinner on my brother's patio. My brother’s property is like a wildlife refuge and aviary combined. We grew up a mile from my brother's house. Growing up, we never saw a deer, a wild turkey or other wildlife except for wild rabbits. In the 1960s and 1970s, the air was nasty. Nearby, we had a steel mill, an iron works, two chemical plants and an asphalt plant. The morning air stunk most days. In high school, I called the EPA to complain. Nothing happened. Across the river was a coal-burning power plant. Back then there were few pollution controls. I worked summers at a country club as a caddy and later in the kitchen. On Mondays, when the club was closed, I helped an elderly shopkeeper in Oakmont. My first task was to sweep the sidewalk in front of her shop. It always had a layer of black ash on it. As bad as the air was, the water was worse. You could not eat any fish caught in the Allegheny River. Plum Creek that ran near our home was orange from mine acid drainage. There was no sewage treatment plant. Guess what else was in Plum Creek? We had a large family. Our dad was a carpenter doing maintenance for the VA Hospital in Aspinwall and did side jobs on weekends. He didn't earn a lot of money but was never laid off. We always had food on the table. Cookies were a luxury. We couldn't afford a pool pass to the Willows Pool in Oakmont. On hot days, we swam in orange Plum Creek. If our mother found out, we would have been punished. I recall one day there was something in the water and our hands started turning blue. We jumped out. That did not stop future swims. We got to talking about old times and our swims. My brothers told me that fish and waterfowl have returned. People are fishing for bass today in Plum Creek. This entire region has changed. Like in West Virginia, wildlife in Pennsylvania is back in abundance. Water is clean. Sewage treatment plants were built. Industrial discharge is regulated. If you don't understand the past, you may have difficulty dealing effectively with the future. I was part of the early environmental movement. Our actions were not based on some reporter with an agenda or lies and half truths on the internet. They were not based on fear the world would end in 10 years if we did not act, like we have heard for decades. Environmental action was based on the realities we experienced, facts, truth and a sincere concern about our health and the health of others. We environmentalists acted out of care for the planet because we cared about people. The goal was to create a clean environment AND prosperity. It worked. Today, we have the cleanest air and water of my life. We can always do better. It is important to understand how far we came and why we succeeded. Those who claim to care about the environment and are frustrated might learn a lesson from the past by putting people first. It's interesting that when I was growing up (1970-1979), Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia produced only 1.5% of the USA's natural gas. Our region was powered by coal, oil and natural gas pipelines from the Gulf Coast and Texas. When the Shale Revolution started, in 2010, the antis attacked the 60-plus-year-old process of hydraulic fracturing used globally. Hydraulic fracturing never did and could never (based on simple engineering) contaminate groundwater. They tried to vilify it by calling it "fracking" using lies, half truths and bullying "fracking" supporters. Industry finally had the courage to push back publicly with facts. Europe never got the message and chose to use expensive "fracked" gas from Russia instead of their own. Today, Shale Crescent USA produces over 33% of the USA's natural gas and has the cleanest air and water of my life, possibly the cleanest since the early 1800s. The SCUSA's cheap, abundant natural gas is bringing industry and high-wage jobs back to our region. Putting people first today, we can again create prosperity and have a clean environment. *** Greg Kozera, [email protected], is director of marketing for Shale Crescent USA. He is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and more than 40 years of experience in the energy industry. Greg is a leadership expert, high school soccer coach, professional speaker and author of four books and many published articles.