Industry, GOP call for loosening regs to help manufacturing, veterans

E&E News
By Sam Pearson
May 21, 2014

Rising oil and natural gas production in the United States presents lucrative opportunities for veterans and manufacturing workers if managed correctly, panels of industry and technical education officials told two House subcommittees yesterday.

Low natural gas prices in the United States have helped the manufacturing industry add positions for the past four years, said Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), the chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.

"These are the stories you never hear about in the news -- companies and people doing things for their community and people they employ," said Josh Lowrey, senior vice president of business development and industry affairs at Houston-based Forge USA, which he said grew from 38 employees in 2004 to 200 this year as a result of greater hydraulic fracturing and offshore drilling.

Lamborn warned that growth of that kind would stall unless the Obama administration or Congress loosened regulations for energy producers, risking a loss of manufacturing jobs like what occurred in the late 20th century.

"If these policies continue, we will see manufacturers again flee our shores in search of more friendly and reliable manufacturing environments, taking American jobs with them," Lamborn said.

Lamborn's subcommittee has held a series of hearings this year on the burdens posed by restrictions on energy development on public lands and sought to draw attention to underserved groups that may benefit from employment opportunities in a profitable domestic energy industry.

Still, Democrats warned that proposals to allow for greater exports of liquefied natural gas risked increasing the cost of domestic energy and imperiling that progress. It is also necessary to maintain standards for natural gas production that are sufficient to protect the environment and health of residents living near production sites, said Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), the subcommittee's ranking member.

Holt said GOP-backed legislative proposals like Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.)'s "Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom Act" put "multinational corporations first and the American people and manufacturing jobs second. That's completely backwards."

Programs to increase energy efficiency would also spur additional domestic manufacturing without raising the risks posed by additional natural gas exports, Holt said.

Domestic energy jobs are particularly appealing for soldiers returning from overseas, lawmakers said at a House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity hearing later in the day.

While many veterans can receive training meant to help them gain employment in the oil and gas industry at technical colleges and through other organizations, challenges remain to align the sometimes conflicting requirements of different federal agencies, a panel of trade school and nonprofit leaders testified.

John Simon, senior vice president for human resources at Pacific Gas and Electric Co., said the federal government sometimes "feels like the right hand may not know what the left hand is doing."

Rep. Paul Cook (R-Calif.), a former colonel in the Marine Corps, said veterans want to find these kind of high-paying jobs but struggle with the perception they were scarred from combat. That kind of attitude has "almost put a cloud over veterans in general," Cook said.