Posted on 05/25/2012 1:32:46 PM PDT by thackney
Professor Byron Kohut helps hundreds of low-income adults land coveted jobs in the booming shale-gas industry in Pennsylvania. But only the tough need apply, he said.
"If they are not physically capable of working outside, in bad weather, dangerous conditions, I scare them out of drilling," said Kohut, who coordinates a natural-gas job-training course at Westmoreland County Community College, about 40 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. "It's not easy work," Kohut said, adding that people with backgrounds in agriculture, construction and mechanics have a better shot at getting in.
The community college's course, part of a workforce-development program funded by a $4.6 million federal grant, prepares residents in Pennsylvania and neighboring states to compete for the torrent of jobs being generated by natural-gas companies tapping the prolific Marcellus Shale. The multi-state program, called ShaleNET, is trying to fix a mismatch between the rising number of jobs emerging with the shale-gas business in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and New York, and the many unemployed, or low-paid, workers who can't be hired by the shale industry due to their lack of basic skills.
Labor demand in the Marcellus Shale, a deeply buried layer of tight rock containing vast amounts of natural gas, has continued to grow despite recent rock-bottom prices for the commodity, in part because the area's highly productive wells, and their proximity to huge markets in the Northeast, allow drilling there to remain profitable.
Almost half of the 400 people needed to drill a single well do jobs that don't require four-year college degrees, including general labor, heavy-equipment operators, and truck drivers. In about four weeks of training, the ShareNET program turns young farmers, construction workers, veterans and carpenters, among others, into certified gas-field workers who know the basics about drilling and controlling a well.
The program's standards are high...
(Excerpt) Read more at rigzone.com ...
More domestic energy, lots of good paying jobs, revitalizing local economies....no wonder the looney lefties are trying to stop it.
I know a few quality skilled people in the area that have gotten raises, just so they won’t leave and join the oil/gas workforce.
They are using a Federal grant to train workers to work in the gas fields?
Two things immediately leap out here:
1. This is probably the only such time these funds have actually been well spent;
2. Which means that it won’t be long before the Feds ban the use of those funds for this purpose.
I see a History Channel series in the future............Black Gold Rush!.............
IF Gov’t (and I mean States, not Fed) is going to give any money to education, it should be in the trades (like this) and in community colleges. Forget about universities. Train people for REAL careers
Federal to education, student loan gaurantees, etc... are a hideous waste. Cut it all.
“people with backgrounds in agriculture, construction and mechanics have a better shot at getting in”
The mining industry was the same. Some fifty underground laborers were hired and entry level trained every month, forty of them quit because the work was “ too hard” even though it paid very well.
The average annual income of a roughneck--a member of the oil rig in charge of handling pipelines and maintaining the rig--is $100,000. That includes overtime, daily stipends and room and board.Good on them!
I wish them all health, prosperity... and a good conservative outlook on life!
They'll just frack elsewhere.
PO'd in Upstate NY.
Dn't worry....as soon as they figure out how to regulate and tax the hell out of the fracking, they'll come to the table.
Once the needed facilities are complete, exports will take care of that.
Folks, there are so many plays in the US that there is a massive shortage of workers in the O&G sector.
In the past, folks from TX, OK, LA and AK would move around to the hottest play.
Now, there is so much activity and so many centuries of energy in these plays that local workers are required.
We are talking about generational employment here, folks! The people working in the fields today will pass it along to their children and grandchildren.
150 years from now, people will talk about their great grandad who helped drill the first wells in XXXXXXX.
Rush touched on this today. When Obama loses this fall, the new POTUS will only have to open up energy development and the economy will start its march toward another 20-year boom like we saw under Reagan.
There is only one facility that liquefies natural gas for export near Baltimore. It is being expanded for this.
However, pipelines are being laid to connect the Marcellus to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and DC. Once those are in place, there will be less need for export as local demand will absorb the production.
And if Boehner and McConnell are not replaced and Romney doesn't grow a pair to totally downsize and streamline Govt, the boom may not be as good as you think.
Look at Ford...
Just got out of Junk Bond Status this week.
They cut expenses, and on the Revenue side the new product. If they didn't do both they would have been screwed period, just like we will.
It is worse with Congress and the Senate, they will continue to spend unless we send more Tea Party re-inforcements...
My auto gnome made a good point the other day. One of Mulally's turn around guys that retired recently was a fellow by the name of Booth and noted he was a bloody genious. Said auto gnome noted he is a must appointee for Romney...
"If they are not physically capable of working outside, in bad weather, dangerous conditions, I scare them out of drilling,"
Uh, oh. That sounds like code for men only. Obama's diversity staff better step in. Obviously, the requirements need to be lowered.
Yep. I read that if upstate were separate from NYC, we'd be the second poorest state in the nation. Wouldn't want to do anything to fix that now, would we. It might upset the folks in the city who can't stand to think of their weekend vacation spots being sullied by a nearby gas well, somewhere in the woods, that supports a few dozen families.
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