He went on to describe a 550 kV power transmission line passing through the property, with the shipping lane of the Mississippi River on one side and a railroad on the other. An interstate is a few miles away. Correnti also hailed the "can-do attitude of the governmental agencies, plus the Arkansas farm boys and farm girls."Arkansas government with a "can do" attitude? Left over from Slick Willie?
The fact that all of it is sitting atop the natural-gas-rich Fayetteville shale never came up. But industry insiders are citing Big River Steel and similar projects as the result of abundant new fuel supplies. The American Chemistry Council predicts 13,000 jobs will be created in Arkansas, 500 of those at Big River Steel. It's touted as a key dividend of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and the unlocking of massive reserves in shale formations across the country.
President Obama picked up the theme in his State of the Union address. "One of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy," he said.
"Our commitment"? Really?
"Businesses plan to invest almost $100 billion in new factories that use natural gas," he added, pledging to cut red tape to help get the facilities built.
But not the Keystone Pipeline. Ironic, Obama touting something that succeeded in spite of him and his administration.
Suddenly, natural gas is the stuff dreams are made of. Well, if not dreams, then pool liners, food packaging, shoes, diapers, coatings, films, and sealants. Jobs, basically. Manufacturing jobs. Industry predictions--always heady--have ranged as high as 5 million new U.S. factory jobs in the coming decade due to cheap new natural gas supplies. But can abundant natural gas really turn back the clock on more than three decades of economic change? Some 7.5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have been lost since the 1970s, for reasons that are complex, but include cheap labor, lax environmental regulation, and subsidy and tax policies overseas. The cost of energy is certainly one factor in siting new factories, but is it a big enough bait to lure back the blue-collar jobs lost during the rise of globalization?
I am sure some progressives are thinking, "Why should we bother if gas is not a 'silver bullet' to sole all our ailments?"
The numbers show that manufacturing in the United States is indeed making a comeback. But there remains plenty of disagreement about why, how far it will go, and how big of a role the new supply of natural gas is playing. "Increased oil and gas supplies will bring an economic renaissance to the United States," petroleum economist Philip Verleger declared recently. "Energy independence, once thought unrealistic, will be achieved."
Research firm IHS predicts that as many as 3.8 million new jobs will be created in the United States, either directly or indirectly related to the natural gas industry, by 2025. There is a catch, of course. The U.S. government needs to give the industry what it wants, such as more access to federal land for drilling and no new regulation.
Anecdotes abound of factory jobs returning stateside. But what accounts for the bump? Goldman Sachs' economist Jan Hatzius has dismissed it largely as cyclical, and cast doubt on the idea that natural gas is doing much for manufacturers.
In fact, U.S. economic recovery efforts likely had more impact than energy prices. Of the 307,000 net new manufacturing jobs that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says have been added since the recession officially ended in June 2009, 65 percent were in the auto and auto parts manufacturing industries. They're not extremely energy-intensive, but they did benefit from a $78 billion government bailout, since repaid.
So it IS the gubbamint that single-handedly drives the economy!
Maybe we can sell US gas at a fat profit, and still undercut the Rooskis?
IEA said that over the next decade the United States will enjoy an export cost advantage of 5 to 25 percent over Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan in a range of industries, including plastics, rubber, machinery, electrical equipment, computers, and electronics--as long as U.S. natural gas prices stay low.
I call that good news! Thanks, Champ!
Ironically, some big players in the U.S. chemical industry have fought efforts to build new facilities to export U.S. natural gas, for fear that sending the fuel to overseas markets will reduce supply here. That could cause domestic natural gas prices to rise--erasing the low-cost fuel and feedstock advantage for U.S. manufacturers.
There's always somebody wants to pee in your charcoal!