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Boom in Energy Spurs Industry in the Rust Belt
NY Times ^ | SEPT. 8, 2014 | NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

Posted on 09/10/2014 5:14:03 AM PDT by thackney

Waist-high weeds and a crumbling old Chevy mark the entrance to a rust-colored factory complex on the edge of town here, seemingly another monument to the passing of the golden age of American industry.

But deep inside the 14-acre site, the thwack-thwack-thwack sound of metal on metal tells a different story.

“We’re holding our own,” said Greg Hess, who is looking to hire draftsmen and machine operators at the company he runs, Youngstown Bending and Rolling. “I feel good that we saved this place from the wrecking ball.”

The turnaround is part of a transformation spreading across the heartland of the nation, driven by a surge in domestic oil and gas production that is changing the economic calculus for old industries and downtrodden cities alike.

Here in Ohio, in an arc stretching south from Youngstown past Canton and into the rural parts of the state where much of the natural gas is being drawn from shale deep underground, entire sectors like manufacturing, hotels, real estate and even law are being reshaped. A series of recent economic indicators, including factory hiring, shows momentum building nationally in the manufacturing sector....

Vallourec, a French industrial giant, recently completed a million-square-foot plant in Youngstown to make steel pipes for the energy industry, the first mill of its kind to open here in 50 years. The facility, which cost $1.1 billion to build, will be joined next year by a smaller $80 million Vallourec plant making pipe connectors.

The change is evident in the once-moribund downtowns of northeastern Ohio cities as well as in the economic data for the state as a whole.

Ohio’s unemployment rate in July was 5.7 percent, well below the national average of 6.1 percent....

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Ohio; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: energy; marcellus; naturalgas; rustbelt
excerpted for NY Times
1 posted on 09/10/2014 5:14:03 AM PDT by thackney
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To: thackney

Where’s the “thank you” bouquet for Texas gas and oil companies that single handedly saved the nation’s economy during the disastrous Big Bank/Big Government Depression? While Obama’s Marxists were shoveling taxpayer money to their cronies in green energy scams, the gas and oilmen were tracking at their own risk. He is a failure. They are the one success story of the last five years.


2 posted on 09/10/2014 5:20:41 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: txrefugee
On the downside, we are being invaded with lots of vehicles with New York license plates.

Some of them will go home once this stupid Commonwealth elects Tommy Wolf governor. Wolf has pledged to tax the hell out of the energy companies in order to supply all the wants of the education lobby.

3 posted on 09/10/2014 5:24:58 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: txrefugee
Where’s the “thank you” bouquet for Texas gas and oil companies

Right here:

Recognizing The Golden Age Of Texas Oil And Gas While We're In It
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3202478/posts

4 posted on 09/10/2014 5:26:18 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: txrefugee
None of those industries "saved" the U.S. economy. In fact, I'd suggest that those industries have benefitted greatly from the U.S. economic collapse because the declining value of the U.S. dollar has made domestic production more viable than it ever would have been in the days of $15/barrel oil in the late 1990s.

It's important not to overlook the various cause/effect relationships in various U.S. industries like this.

5 posted on 09/10/2014 5:35:58 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on here?")
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To: thackney

Will the condescending NY Times elites from the Sodomy Belt please stop calling the midwest the Rust Belt?


6 posted on 09/10/2014 5:50:59 AM PDT by Ge0ffrey
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To: thackney

The leftists at the NY Times hate the heartland, and hate fossil fuels even more. Their subscribers read this article with strong disdain.


7 posted on 09/10/2014 5:52:50 AM PDT by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: Alberta's Child
It's important not to overlook the various cause/effect relationships in various U.S. industries like this.

Yeah, the 30,000 different business that supply the oil/gas companies have had great growth due to the rising oil/gas production.

Long supply chain keeps oil industry pumping
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3202344/posts

8 posted on 09/10/2014 5:58:59 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: thackney
There is nothing like cheap and plentiful energy to get industry and the economy going.
That's why Commies hate it so much.

9 posted on 09/10/2014 6:04:19 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: Ge0ffrey

Gas Belt would be a better description at this point.

Marcellus Region production continues growth
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=17411

http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/drilling/pdf/marcellus.pdf


10 posted on 09/10/2014 6:10:02 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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To: Ge0ffrey
Sodomy belt


11 posted on 09/10/2014 6:43:37 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: thackney

Where are the Unions in all this. Will they choke this...or will this be non-union?


12 posted on 09/10/2014 7:44:19 AM PDT by rusureitflies?
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To: rusureitflies?

Well...let’s see...all unions...local guvmint, county guvmint, state guvmint, federal guvmint all have their hands out...we’ll see how long this “Boom” lasts.


13 posted on 09/10/2014 7:50:33 AM PDT by gr8eman (Bill Carson...meet Arch Stanton!)
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To: rusureitflies?

Unions are fairly strong in that area. Which is why they have been hurting before this.


14 posted on 09/10/2014 7:51:03 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer.)
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