ERIE, Pennsylvania — The Marcellus Shale Coalition, the premier energy industry trade association in the country, didn’t pick this Northwestern Pennsylvania location for its stunning Great Lake sunsets. But it doesn’t hurt that the views at the Bayfront Convention Center, where its annual Shale Insight event is held, are spectacular.
Dave Callahan, the new president of MSC, said it was time to move the event out of the bigger cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia to cities like Erie because of the outsize positive impact they have in guiding the industry to the future.
“Erie and counties along the top tier of this state have historically been these manufacturing powerhouses that have contributed to the birth of the energy industry here 100 years ago and into today," Callahan said. "We picked Erie to highlight that importance and highlight the opportunities here for downstream manufacturing."
This week's event marks the first time the industry has moved its huge event out of Pittsburgh. Callahan is diplomatic about how years of hostility from former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto contributed to the exit.
This week, the city of Erie will reap the benefits of industry leaders from across the country enjoying the sites, eateries, and bay-front views of this Midwestern town.
Last year, Shale Insight was virtual only, given the restrictions of the pandemic. However, it is the largest natural gas industry event in the mid-Atlantic and is a must-attend event for those in the industry.
For years, the industry had a champion in former President Donald Trump. He spoke at the conference twice, once in 2016 when he was running for office and again in 2019, both in Pittsburgh.
Today, the industry is in purgatory with the Biden administration. When running for office, the former Delaware senator said he would ban hydraulic fracturing, the process that extracts petroleum from deep underground.
To date, President Joe Biden has limited his hydraulic fracturing ban only to oil and natural gas development on public lands. A study conducted by University of Wyoming professor Tim Considine showed that the ban severely harms the economies of eight Western states, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming, to the tune of $670 billion over 20 years.
PwC's latest survey on the economic impact of the industry in the state showed that the oil and gas industry supported 480,300 total jobs, 102,500 direct and 377,800 indirect, a number that equals just over 6% of the state's total employment. Pennsylvania is a leading producer of natural gas, running a close second to powerhouse Texas.
Callahan said the change of location also makes sense because it brings everyone here to the roots of modern American energy production. “The extractive industries were a part of life here in this part of western Pennsylvania,” he said. The energy industry started not far from here, at the Drake Well in Titusville, when oil was struck. It was a moment that changed the entire country, quickly transforming an agrarian world controlled by the rise and set of the sun to a manufacturing society where electricity made work possible even after sunset. This meant more jobs, more production, and more people living in cities.
Callahan himself comes from a McKean County family that spent generations living with and working in the extraction industry. “We had a pump jack in the backyard, a pump jack across the hill," he said. "Mind you, they weren't ours. But just hearing the tree frogs and the crickets in the spring and summertime, and hearing those pump jacks, would lull you to sleep, then wake you up in the morning.”
“My dad worked for Columbia Gas there for 43 years, my mother worked there off and on for 28 years, and my grandfather worked for the company that preceded it, so there was a history for me when I joined the industry,” said Callahan, who took the president's position seven months ago.
Callahan said the Marcellus Shale Coalition has been around as long as the industry itself. “It was started by some of the first producers involved in the industry here in Pennsylvania around 2008," he said. "It's a trade association. We represent the producers, pipeline and midstream companies, downstream companies, whether it's a local distribution company or a power generation company, and then folks who provide goods and services to the industry."
All in all, it has 100 members at present. “It is a good, strong organization," Callahan said. "It engages our members in any number of ways. And we engage the public, as part of our mission is to engage our public stakeholders, members of the media, legislators, regulators, opinion leaders of all times, providing them with fact-based information about the industry, providing a forum for our members to solve common problems, and to both, again as a trade association, advance and defend the industry.”
As with the coal industry, defending a fossil fuel is always a challenge. So many people get their information in small, easily consumed influencer Instagram posts or TikTok videos, rather than seeking deeper explanations.
Callahan said it is challenging to get people not in the industry to recognize the great gains in clean power the natural gas industry has made. “The question always becomes, 'How do we get the word out?'" he said. "Part of that is providing thoughtful, fact-based comments and providing good, solid information on our website. But honestly, a lot of it comes down to the people who work in the industry, the good women and men who work in the industry, talking at the ballfield or talking at the church parking lot.”
He said nothing is more meaningful than that one-on-one relationship that comes from your neighbors and friends hearing from those who work in the industry explain it from the vantage point of living it every day.
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Tags: Manufacturing, Pennsylvania, Energy, Fossil Fuels
Original Author: Salena Zito
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