Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hi, everyone. This is Minnie Anderson and I'm sitting in
for Drake who is in school as we speak. And
I am joined by Sam from the bloom Daddy Experience.
Thank you so much, Sam for the pinch Hitter today,
the pinch Hinter today. We are so excited because I'm
(00:41):
excited to welcome Greg and Sarah. Greg and Sarah from
Shell crescent Us A welcome and thank you for coming.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's good to be here, but I just love it's
good to get back up here to Wheeling, but to
see what's happening here. A lot of people. If you
live here, it's kind of your kids growing up. Sure
you don't notice. And we just got were We stayed
at Ogleby last night.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What they've done to that place is awesome. Off the
charts it is.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
It's beautiful and when you first want drive in that
that that says what Ogilby Park and it's got the
light and.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
The water flowing. No, they've done some great stuff with
that hotel. And that's the kind of thing that as
we bring foreign yes industry here, that's that's the kind
of place that they need to see.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Okay, so Greg, let's start it off. What is Shell Crescent,
USA Shill Crescent.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We're a nonprofit, non government economic development, marketing and research organization.
Long story short, what it means is our whole mission
is we're privately funded, is to create jobs in this
region we call the Shell Crescent region, West Virginia, Ohio,
and Pennsylvania. Those three states we were formed into twenty sixteen.
(02:02):
I joined in fall that year and what had happened.
A group of community and business leaders in the Parkersburg
Marrietta area looked at what was going on and they
realized that, Wow, we've got abundant natural gas, We've got
a great workforce, we've got the Ohio River and other waterways,
(02:23):
and we're in the middle of one of the largest
of half the US population. So we're in the middle
of a huge area of customers potential customers, and nobody
knew and so they brought me on. My background is
forty plus years new only a gas industry. A lot
of that was as an engineer, but eventually I did
(02:45):
a lot of sales in marketing. And so we were
in a meeting and Jerry jameson, we need to talk
and as my wife Linda said, you are consumed with
shell crassing because it is. It's exciting because and particularly
now because we're at the point that we actually get
(03:08):
to see and meet the jobs we've helped to create.
Because what we do, our real mission is to create
jobs and raise the actually raise the standard of living
for everybody here in the region. But we how we
do that. We use our marketing, our research, and one
of the things we do a lot of high dollar
(03:28):
studies and one one of the first ones we did
was looking at building a cracker plant here versus the
Gulf Coast, and we thought we might have an advantage.
We did that. That was in twenty seventeen. First one
we did. We did it with IHS Market. Their VP
calls me in October that year and he said, he said,
(03:49):
we thought you might have a slight advantage over the
Golf Coast. We didn't realize it would be this big.
It was a big enough deal that we were able
to get on the main stage the World Petrochemical Conference
in March of twenty eighteen that a group from this
region hadn't been on there, I don't know, I guess forever.
(04:10):
And our study was presented as part of a panel.
Mountaineer Storage was there we had Shell was part of
the panel when and then we had a gentleman from
IHES that did the presentation and then went back to
Old Their VP was part of that. And when they
asked Hillary Mercer from Shell, the senior VP, why did
(04:34):
you come to Pittsburgh, And she points straight at Tony
Palmer who presented our study, and he said, she said,
for every reason he just told you, And the whole
mission is what's changed is we've got this abundant natural gas.
We've got the natural gas, liquids, that raw materials. What
we had been doing since about twenty ten is shipping
(04:56):
all that to the Gulf Coast. Their crackers down their
turn it into a little pellet. But what we didn't
know is seventy percent of the people that use those
pellets that make cell phone cases and fabric and plastic
bottles and my wife's knee cartilage, people that make all
(05:16):
that's to all the medical equipment, they're making it up here.
So the pellets go to the Gulf Coast and then
they ship them back because seventy percent of the polyethlene
and polypropylene demand is here. And all that Shell did
is they built literally on top of their energy and
feedstock and in the middle of their customers. When you
do that, you massively you eliminate millions of dollars in transportation,
(05:42):
not just to get their product, but to ship that
end product and the customers that in the plastics industry
to be able to buy it. Right now today in Fallensby,
we've got just right. They used to be Eagle manufacturing.
Oh okay, just right, all that stuff. Well, they're buying
(06:03):
their pellets from Shell now sixty miles away. Before Shell
was there, they had to get them from the golf
coast using our natural gas was making these pellets on
the golf coast and they're having to buy them and
ship them up here.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now, look how much money they're saving. And they can
turn that savings over to the customers exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And the other thing they save money on is they
don't have to store all this stuff because we all
know that what's the golf coast have they have hurricanes.
When there's a hurricane, everything shuts down and they for
their like a just ride or an eagle to keep going,
they gotta have to have storage. Yeah, well, if you can,
(06:44):
if you know that, and Shells I've seen them since
they've been in operation, and they live by this mantra.
You call us Monday, we will have you product by Friday.
If you order that same product from the golf Coast,
it's thirty to forty five days by rail. Oh can
you imagine the change from a business standpoint, if you're
(07:05):
a small business owner, can you imagine the savings and
those savings are creating jobs? Because now what we've all
learned for anybody in business. Back in my oil field days,
I knew if I wanted to grow revenue, the fastest
way was to go into an existing customer and help
(07:27):
them to buy more of what we do. Sure, well,
can you imagine the same thing happens here? If we
want to create jobs fast and we've helped we as
Shall Crescent helped to do this. A local company can
add a line or at a machine in a matter
of months. It takes years to build a factory. And
(07:51):
we're saying a good friend of mine in Ravens would
we got to talk to him, explain to all the
stuff that the reasons why he can expand. And we're
at the business a couple of years ago and he
comes up to me. He says, we're adding three lines.
I said, what does that mean? He says, I got
to hire engineers. I got hired people. And that's the
(08:12):
change is a local company can grow very quickly. You
can add a shift, you can add one piece of
equipment and expand in a matter of months and create
the jobs that we're looking for. So that's what we do.
We're job creators. And it's fun because we're seeing local
companies expand and sometimes people you know, say, well, where
(08:34):
are these jobs? We don't see them. Talking to Buddy Malone,
he's head of the Parkersburg Mariatta Building Trades Console. That's
the electricians.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Okay, all those right, all those.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Skill trades, carpenters, mill rights, the whole thing. And when
we started talking in seventeen and eighteen, his a lot
of his people were working up at Shell and he said, Greg,
he says, I want my members to be able to
sleep in their own beds. And they're doing that now
because local plants up and Done Ohio River are expanding.
(09:05):
They're not the ones that are going to put in
a wheeling or Saint Clair's bal paper. They're not going
to put a headline that we're going to because they're
not going to tell their competitors, but they're very quietly
expanding their lines. There's one company I can share this
with you. We were at a meeting in Charleston a
couple of months ago and I asked the first question.
(09:27):
A big plant down to Parkersburg. Everybody knows about it,
and I said, are you considering moving production from Europe?
Because Europe can't get energy, they can't get raw materials.
They're about their production in Europe is about half of
what it used to be. And I said, are you
considering moving production from Europe to the Parkersburg area? And
(09:51):
he just smiled. He said, I really can't tell you
about that, but he said, I can tell you this.
The sister plant to the Parkersburg plant is in Amsterdam.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
And that's all.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
That's all you needed to say. So that's the stuff.
So what Buddy told me, he said, Greg, he said,
all of my members are sleeping in their own beds,
they're working here in the area. And his big challenge
now isn't finding jobs for his people, is finding people
(10:25):
for the jobs. And that's a big deal. And that's
something that I think you as part of the chamber.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Up here we've.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Got to get that message out to young people in
particular that dog gone it. If you want to go
to college, great, but you don't have to go. And
these aren't Grandpa's manufacturing jobs where you've got to be
sweaty and off and whatever. These are high tech jobs.
These are jobs that are these are computer oriented job.
These are the kind of jobs that are they're skilled
(10:54):
jobs that you need training for. And but I taught
two years at peer Pop before I got so busy
with sholle Crass and I couldn't and my students I
did a leadership course. I got them second year. They
were already all of them undred percent had job offers
making fifty to sixty thousand to start. And that's a
(11:15):
two year degree, not that different from from Belmont or
West Virginia Northern. Can you imagine making fifty to sixty
grand a year, two year degree and that cost them
fifteen grand if they paid if I didn get a scholarship.
And then, now here's the fun thing. I asked these
and the students, I said, well, you're all working, you're
(11:36):
all doing okay. I said, what are you going to
do when you more than double your salaries? Your income.
What do you think the first thing you're going to
buy is car?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
This is West Virginia, house, pickup truck. I was gonna
say four wheeler, pickup truck. Well that that's like fifty
thousand dollars right there.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
But when do you write the second one is a house? Yeah?
And the third one I didn't think about they because
we're in Fairmont, w w U Mountaineer season football tickets.
So can you see when you start creating the manufacturing jobs.
We've got a friend, our doctor's son lives in Fairmont.
Had he graduated from that program, he got the house,
(12:19):
he got the pickup truck, he's got was it three kids? Now?
Three kids? Now? Okay, that's three more West Virginians. And
guess what he's buying. They're buying baby beds? Right, But
can you see what that does to the local economy
when you're starting and somebody had, somebody had to build house,
(12:40):
and so all those things. That's why bringing manufacturing back
here is so powerful.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
It is.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Well, Greg, just real quick, you you spoke about the
manufacturing of the past. Do we not still have in
the Tri state region a lot of the the base infrastructure,
the Ohio River Valley, the Ohio River, the rail system,
the the trucking system, it's all still here. It's just
not utilized to the potential it could.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Correct, Sam, you just nailed it. That's exactly what we have,
and that's that was That's Shell Crescent's mission is to
tell the world that we have exactly what you talked about.
We have the Ohio River. And we had a company
from Italy here last week before last. They were enumored
at the size of the Ohio River and watching these
(13:29):
barges go up and done. So they they unless they come,
unless we tell them we got the r River. We've
got a great workforce. Still, we've got we're in the
middle of half the US population, which is not just plastics,
but you name it, everything else. So you get all that,
and we have what the world doesn't have is energy.
(13:52):
We got we got a lot of coal. But now today,
with with with the movement towards clean power, if this
region West free, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, if we were our
own country, we would be the number three natural gas
producing country in the world. The only paraduct places on
planet Earth that produce more natural gas are the rest
(14:15):
of the US without our region. That's US number one,
Russian number two, we're number three. We produce twice as
much natural gas here just these three states as the
entire country of China. So when we actually did a
study with Jobs Ohio comparing manufacturing costs in China versus Cambridge, Okay,
the city, guess what we win. We win hands down.
(14:39):
It's not even close. And then that's not even counting
the environmental benefits. If you care about the planet, what
I tell folks, you want to do something good for
the planet by American by here, because you know that
it's made under US environmental law, it's made with our
raw materials, and you're buying it. I mean you're literally
(15:01):
talking about a few hundred miles in transportation versus a
Chinese product made with Middle East oil shipped here. That's
we looked at the number. It's over twenty thousand miles
of transportation. And we know that they don't have the
environmental controls that we have. So why don't even think
about looking yourself in the mirror and seeing what a
(15:22):
great job you're doing. If you're buying Chinese products thinking
you've helped the planet, you're not.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
So we need to the potential growth for the industry
is exponential.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It is, it absolutely is, and we're seeing jobs. Ohio
has done a phenomenal job. Pennsylvania's done a great job.
West Virginia I was talking to I coached high school
soccer and Charleston area. But the gentleman that does the
marketing of pr for the state, Okay, I said, when's
the last time we've seen this kind of growth in
(15:54):
West Virginia? He said, Greg said, the last time we
had this much infrastructure growth and economic development was in
the nineteen twenties. It's been one hundred years since we've
seen this kind of growth in West Virginia. Because think
about it, when's the last time you've seen We watched
(16:17):
all these factories implode. Oh sure, and the reason they
did is we lost our energy advantage. The reason where
I live in Elkview, we're ten miles from Glendenen, where
the first cracker on planet Earth was built by Union
Carbide in nineteen twenty one. They built it there because
we had it was water, the Elk River, but they
(16:39):
had natural gas and they had oil. All the raw
material they needed to make paulyethlene plastic to make those
kind of products. So during World War Two, this whole
we were matter. During the Cold War, I had friends
at W told me that we were on Russia's hit
list because of all the chemical plants in the Kanawa Valley,
(17:02):
in the Ohio Valley. So when those when the energy
went away, so did the jobs, first to the Gulf
Coast and ultimately to China. Asia. That's changed. And when
we were just London, myself and Nathan our president Nathan
rd our president were in Germany. We did a single
day event in March and we had twenty seven different
(17:27):
companies that came to this. We worked with the US
Commercial Services and they told us privately they if you
think about when I didn't know where the coal was
mined in Germany, they don't know where our gases. And
we talked to them after we had a kind of
a mixer session and they said that we are so screwed.
(17:52):
We knew that America had energy. What we didn't know
is the energy is where the people in the manufacturing
are and there there they're message justice. How now do
we compete with that?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And how do they compete? They don't, they don't.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
There's a company Stockmart, your things they're they're located in Clarksburg.
They were thanks to Angela. They were on our panel
and they're explaining why they came to West Virginia. It's
been fifteen years ago. And then their CEO told me
after the after the event, he said, we're trying to
make more of the same product in Germany that we
(18:33):
make that we made here for thirty years. We can't
get the permits to do it. I guess where they're
going to make it. They're going to make in Clarksburg. Now,
they're going to expand Clarksburg because they can't get a
permit in Germany. But there, raw materials are here, They've
got a workforce that's already here. They've already but continuous
property to their Clarksburg location. They're ringing in a rail sighting.
(18:57):
So they're going to expand in West Virginia where they
couldn't do it in Germany. What's that mean for us
as West Virginia jobs? What does it mean for the region,
Because anytime you see an expansion, whether it's in West
Virginia Orillo Pennsylvania, it kind of raises all ships. Yeah,
because you know, whether you live in Saint Clairsville or wheeling.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
You got a car, you're going to go where you're
going to go, wherever the jobs are.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Oh my gosh, so this is this is this is
really an exciting time. We're talking to companies from just
this morning right One of the companies we're working with
an India that wants to come here later this month
or early October reached out. We've got a company from
Romania that's ready to come. We're looking at companies from Turkey.
So throughout literally the world is looking at this region
(19:45):
because we have something they don't have. We got abundant
economic energy. Our natural gas is about a dollar eighty
two dollars in mcf. That's same product. The identical product
in India is fifteen fifty. In Europe it's fourteen fifteen.
Now if you use that as a raw material, where
(20:06):
should you be? The guy from India that he came
up to our booth and by the way, just say,
you know how big a deal this is. We've gone
to a number of other events. We were at Select USA.
It's an event put on. A commerce department does a
phenomenal job in Washington, d C. And they work hard
for a year to bring foreign investment to the United States,
(20:30):
and all the states are they're all fifty states. Hill
Creston had a booth. They opened the doors at eleven
o'clock on Monday. I was there, Nathan, our president, was there.
We had another gentleman from Ohio there. Linda was my
wife was a facilitator, and we were swamped. I've done
(20:51):
trade shows for over forty years. Never saw anyone. I
guess I had two people talking to them. Everybody had
someone they were talking to, someone waiting for them. Then
that comes up to me and she said, see that
guy over there, he said he was here last year.
He said he's not leaving until he sees you. I
mean we were Nevada's across the aisle from us. They're
sitting there twiddling their thumbs, trying to figure out what's
(21:12):
going on. What's going on and when they come. The
people that came to our booth were manufacturers. They didn't
just come to talk. They came with plans. They said, Wow,
company from Poland says, here's we've got two hundred and
fifty jobs. Fifty of them are or white collar, the
other one hundred and ninetyear blue collar. Here's what we're
(21:33):
gonna make. Here's how much acreage we need. And so
what we do we physically take them to Ohio. We
physically take them to the West Virginia booth in Pennsylvania
and introduce them and then the states can work their magic.
But what our goal at schil Crescon is is to
convince these companies. And it's not that hard. It's like
selling it's almost like selling water to a guy that's
(21:56):
on fire. But they come to our booth and our
mission is to tell them that here's why you want
to be in this region and not the Carolina, it's
not the Gulf Coast, and certainly not places like California.
And when we explain that energy manufacturing jobs follow energy,
(22:17):
and what we have is abundant economical energy. And that's
when you look at that, it really eliminates probably forty
plus of the fifty states. But that's what's happening. So
once we and I can say this, the states do
a phenomenal job of they all do. Of the three
(22:37):
that I get to work with, of helping these folks
find sites, they put together economic development packages. And we're
really close with local folks. So we're seeing that and
we're already seeing you know, we talk about local companies expanding,
but TCL is three quarters of the way finished. They're
down the river, they're at New Martinsville. They're gonna have
(23:03):
the original goal was I think it was one hundred folks.
They've already announced an expansion for that property. They're gonna
be over two hund and fifty jobs in there, really,
and they're already I mean we're talking about they're building
modules over in India. They're gonna float them across the
Pond Pacific up the Ohio to that facility. But they've
already done three quarters of the site work there. Their
(23:26):
first modules will be I think later this month. They're
in October, so they're already moved by that plan. They
plan to be in operation in twenty five, so they've
already they've already hired people. There's already contractors on that site.
So next year, next year, they're gonna be an operation.
But they've already when we were in Charleston two months ago,
they announced an expansion they're gonna be they're already looking
(23:47):
at their second phase, which is more jobs, and that's
just down the river from where we're sitting today, and
what's exciting is the product that they're gonna make is
a food add food product they've been selling here for decades.
Well wait on that.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
On that note, we're gonna stop right now because we're
gonna do a part two.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Okay, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Are you okay to stay?
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I'm fine?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
All righty, you got me fired up?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I know, I do. I can see I've got a
handful of questions sitting in.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yes, she does.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Do I get to stay around for part two?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You can stay around for part two? So everyone, thank
you so much for joining us for community connections and commerce.
My name is Wendy Anderson. I'm sitting in for Drake
Watson and as the host. Uh So, we'll hopefully will
be back soon, but if you have any questions for
this first part, please send your questions to OHUE podcast
(24:43):
dot Ohio dot ed U. Again, that's a o U
E podcast dot Ohio dot edu. My name is Wendy
Anderson with Sam and Greg we and Linda. We will
be right back for part two. There
Hi, everyone. This is Minnie Anderson and I'm sitting in
for Drake who is in school as we speak. And
I am joined by Sam from the bloom Daddy Experience.
Thank you so much, Sam for the pinch Hitter today,
the pinch Hinter today. We are so excited because I'm
(00:41):
excited to welcome Greg and Sarah. Greg and Sarah from
Shell crescent Us A welcome and thank you for coming.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's good to be here, but I just love it's
good to get back up here to Wheeling, but to
see what's happening here. A lot of people. If you
live here, it's kind of your kids growing up. Sure
you don't notice. And we just got were We stayed
at Ogleby last night.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
What they've done to that place is awesome. Off the
charts it is.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
It's beautiful and when you first want drive in that
that that says what Ogilby Park and it's got the
light and.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
The water flowing. No, they've done some great stuff with
that hotel. And that's the kind of thing that as
we bring foreign yes industry here, that's that's the kind
of place that they need to see.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Okay, so Greg, let's start it off. What is Shell Crescent,
USA Shill Crescent.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We're a nonprofit, non government economic development, marketing and research organization.
Long story short, what it means is our whole mission
is we're privately funded, is to create jobs in this
region we call the Shell Crescent region, West Virginia, Ohio,
and Pennsylvania. Those three states we were formed into twenty sixteen.
(02:02):
I joined in fall that year and what had happened.
A group of community and business leaders in the Parkersburg
Marrietta area looked at what was going on and they
realized that, Wow, we've got abundant natural gas, We've got
a great workforce, we've got the Ohio River and other waterways,
(02:23):
and we're in the middle of one of the largest
of half the US population. So we're in the middle
of a huge area of customers potential customers, and nobody
knew and so they brought me on. My background is
forty plus years new only a gas industry. A lot
of that was as an engineer, but eventually I did
(02:45):
a lot of sales in marketing. And so we were
in a meeting and Jerry jameson, we need to talk
and as my wife Linda said, you are consumed with
shell crassing because it is. It's exciting because and particularly
now because we're at the point that we actually get
(03:08):
to see and meet the jobs we've helped to create.
Because what we do, our real mission is to create
jobs and raise the actually raise the standard of living
for everybody here in the region. But we how we
do that. We use our marketing, our research, and one
of the things we do a lot of high dollar
(03:28):
studies and one one of the first ones we did
was looking at building a cracker plant here versus the
Gulf Coast, and we thought we might have an advantage.
We did that. That was in twenty seventeen. First one
we did. We did it with IHS Market. Their VP
calls me in October that year and he said, he said,
(03:49):
we thought you might have a slight advantage over the
Golf Coast. We didn't realize it would be this big.
It was a big enough deal that we were able
to get on the main stage the World Petrochemical Conference
in March of twenty eighteen that a group from this
region hadn't been on there, I don't know, I guess forever.
(04:10):
And our study was presented as part of a panel.
Mountaineer Storage was there we had Shell was part of
the panel when and then we had a gentleman from
IHES that did the presentation and then went back to
Old Their VP was part of that. And when they
asked Hillary Mercer from Shell, the senior VP, why did
(04:34):
you come to Pittsburgh, And she points straight at Tony
Palmer who presented our study, and he said, she said,
for every reason he just told you, And the whole
mission is what's changed is we've got this abundant natural gas.
We've got the natural gas, liquids, that raw materials. What
we had been doing since about twenty ten is shipping
(04:56):
all that to the Gulf Coast. Their crackers down their
turn it into a little pellet. But what we didn't
know is seventy percent of the people that use those
pellets that make cell phone cases and fabric and plastic
bottles and my wife's knee cartilage, people that make all
(05:16):
that's to all the medical equipment, they're making it up here.
So the pellets go to the Gulf Coast and then
they ship them back because seventy percent of the polyethlene
and polypropylene demand is here. And all that Shell did
is they built literally on top of their energy and
feedstock and in the middle of their customers. When you
do that, you massively you eliminate millions of dollars in transportation,
(05:42):
not just to get their product, but to ship that
end product and the customers that in the plastics industry
to be able to buy it. Right now today in Fallensby,
we've got just right. They used to be Eagle manufacturing.
Oh okay, just right, all that stuff. Well, they're buying
(06:03):
their pellets from Shell now sixty miles away. Before Shell
was there, they had to get them from the golf
coast using our natural gas was making these pellets on
the golf coast and they're having to buy them and
ship them up here.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now, look how much money they're saving. And they can
turn that savings over to the customers exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
And the other thing they save money on is they
don't have to store all this stuff because we all
know that what's the golf coast have they have hurricanes.
When there's a hurricane, everything shuts down and they for
their like a just ride or an eagle to keep going,
they gotta have to have storage. Yeah, well, if you can,
(06:44):
if you know that, and Shells I've seen them since
they've been in operation, and they live by this mantra.
You call us Monday, we will have you product by Friday.
If you order that same product from the golf Coast,
it's thirty to forty five days by rail. Oh can
you imagine the change from a business standpoint, if you're
(07:05):
a small business owner, can you imagine the savings and
those savings are creating jobs? Because now what we've all
learned for anybody in business. Back in my oil field days,
I knew if I wanted to grow revenue, the fastest
way was to go into an existing customer and help
(07:27):
them to buy more of what we do. Sure, well,
can you imagine the same thing happens here? If we
want to create jobs fast and we've helped we as
Shall Crescent helped to do this. A local company can
add a line or at a machine in a matter
of months. It takes years to build a factory. And
(07:51):
we're saying a good friend of mine in Ravens would
we got to talk to him, explain to all the
stuff that the reasons why he can expand. And we're
at the business a couple of years ago and he
comes up to me. He says, we're adding three lines.
I said, what does that mean? He says, I got
to hire engineers. I got hired people. And that's the
(08:12):
change is a local company can grow very quickly. You
can add a shift, you can add one piece of
equipment and expand in a matter of months and create
the jobs that we're looking for. So that's what we do.
We're job creators. And it's fun because we're seeing local
companies expand and sometimes people you know, say, well, where
(08:34):
are these jobs? We don't see them. Talking to Buddy Malone,
he's head of the Parkersburg Mariatta Building Trades Console. That's
the electricians.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Okay, all those right, all those.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Skill trades, carpenters, mill rights, the whole thing. And when
we started talking in seventeen and eighteen, his a lot
of his people were working up at Shell and he said, Greg,
he says, I want my members to be able to
sleep in their own beds. And they're doing that now
because local plants up and Done Ohio River are expanding.
(09:05):
They're not the ones that are going to put in
a wheeling or Saint Clair's bal paper. They're not going
to put a headline that we're going to because they're
not going to tell their competitors, but they're very quietly
expanding their lines. There's one company I can share this
with you. We were at a meeting in Charleston a
couple of months ago and I asked the first question.
(09:27):
A big plant down to Parkersburg. Everybody knows about it,
and I said, are you considering moving production from Europe?
Because Europe can't get energy, they can't get raw materials.
They're about their production in Europe is about half of
what it used to be. And I said, are you
considering moving production from Europe to the Parkersburg area? And
(09:51):
he just smiled. He said, I really can't tell you
about that, but he said, I can tell you this.
The sister plant to the Parkersburg plant is in Amsterdam.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
And that's all.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
That's all you needed to say. So that's the stuff.
So what Buddy told me, he said, Greg, he said,
all of my members are sleeping in their own beds,
they're working here in the area. And his big challenge
now isn't finding jobs for his people, is finding people
(10:25):
for the jobs. And that's a big deal. And that's
something that I think you as part of the chamber.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Up here we've.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Got to get that message out to young people in
particular that dog gone it. If you want to go
to college, great, but you don't have to go. And
these aren't Grandpa's manufacturing jobs where you've got to be
sweaty and off and whatever. These are high tech jobs.
These are jobs that are these are computer oriented job.
These are the kind of jobs that are they're skilled
(10:54):
jobs that you need training for. And but I taught
two years at peer Pop before I got so busy
with sholle Crass and I couldn't and my students I
did a leadership course. I got them second year. They
were already all of them undred percent had job offers
making fifty to sixty thousand to start. And that's a
(11:15):
two year degree, not that different from from Belmont or
West Virginia Northern. Can you imagine making fifty to sixty
grand a year, two year degree and that cost them
fifteen grand if they paid if I didn get a scholarship.
And then, now here's the fun thing. I asked these
and the students, I said, well, you're all working, you're
(11:36):
all doing okay. I said, what are you going to
do when you more than double your salaries? Your income.
What do you think the first thing you're going to
buy is car?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
This is West Virginia, house, pickup truck. I was gonna
say four wheeler, pickup truck. Well that that's like fifty
thousand dollars right there.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
But when do you write the second one is a house? Yeah?
And the third one I didn't think about they because
we're in Fairmont, w w U Mountaineer season football tickets.
So can you see when you start creating the manufacturing jobs.
We've got a friend, our doctor's son lives in Fairmont.
Had he graduated from that program, he got the house,
(12:19):
he got the pickup truck, he's got was it three kids? Now?
Three kids? Now? Okay, that's three more West Virginians. And
guess what he's buying. They're buying baby beds? Right, But
can you see what that does to the local economy
when you're starting and somebody had, somebody had to build house,
(12:40):
and so all those things. That's why bringing manufacturing back
here is so powerful.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
It is.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Well, Greg, just real quick, you you spoke about the
manufacturing of the past. Do we not still have in
the Tri state region a lot of the the base infrastructure,
the Ohio River Valley, the Ohio River, the rail system,
the the trucking system, it's all still here. It's just
not utilized to the potential it could.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Correct, Sam, you just nailed it. That's exactly what we have,
and that's that was That's Shell Crescent's mission is to
tell the world that we have exactly what you talked about.
We have the Ohio River. And we had a company
from Italy here last week before last. They were enumored
at the size of the Ohio River and watching these
(13:29):
barges go up and done. So they they unless they come,
unless we tell them we got the r River. We've
got a great workforce. Still, we've got we're in the
middle of half the US population, which is not just plastics,
but you name it, everything else. So you get all that,
and we have what the world doesn't have is energy.
(13:52):
We got we got a lot of coal. But now today,
with with with the movement towards clean power, if this
region West free, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, if we were our
own country, we would be the number three natural gas
producing country in the world. The only paraduct places on
planet Earth that produce more natural gas are the rest
(14:15):
of the US without our region. That's US number one,
Russian number two, we're number three. We produce twice as
much natural gas here just these three states as the
entire country of China. So when we actually did a
study with Jobs Ohio comparing manufacturing costs in China versus Cambridge, Okay,
the city, guess what we win. We win hands down.
(14:39):
It's not even close. And then that's not even counting
the environmental benefits. If you care about the planet, what
I tell folks, you want to do something good for
the planet by American by here, because you know that
it's made under US environmental law, it's made with our
raw materials, and you're buying it. I mean you're literally
(15:01):
talking about a few hundred miles in transportation versus a
Chinese product made with Middle East oil shipped here. That's
we looked at the number. It's over twenty thousand miles
of transportation. And we know that they don't have the
environmental controls that we have. So why don't even think
about looking yourself in the mirror and seeing what a
(15:22):
great job you're doing. If you're buying Chinese products thinking
you've helped the planet, you're not.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
So we need to the potential growth for the industry
is exponential.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
It is, it absolutely is, and we're seeing jobs. Ohio
has done a phenomenal job. Pennsylvania's done a great job.
West Virginia I was talking to I coached high school
soccer and Charleston area. But the gentleman that does the
marketing of pr for the state, Okay, I said, when's
the last time we've seen this kind of growth in
(15:54):
West Virginia? He said, Greg said, the last time we
had this much infrastructure growth and economic development was in
the nineteen twenties. It's been one hundred years since we've
seen this kind of growth in West Virginia. Because think
about it, when's the last time you've seen We watched
(16:17):
all these factories implode. Oh sure, and the reason they
did is we lost our energy advantage. The reason where
I live in Elkview, we're ten miles from Glendenen, where
the first cracker on planet Earth was built by Union
Carbide in nineteen twenty one. They built it there because
we had it was water, the Elk River, but they
(16:39):
had natural gas and they had oil. All the raw
material they needed to make paulyethlene plastic to make those
kind of products. So during World War Two, this whole
we were matter. During the Cold War, I had friends
at W told me that we were on Russia's hit
list because of all the chemical plants in the Kanawa Valley,
(17:02):
in the Ohio Valley. So when those when the energy
went away, so did the jobs, first to the Gulf
Coast and ultimately to China. Asia. That's changed. And when
we were just London, myself and Nathan our president Nathan
rd our president were in Germany. We did a single
day event in March and we had twenty seven different
(17:27):
companies that came to this. We worked with the US
Commercial Services and they told us privately they if you
think about when I didn't know where the coal was
mined in Germany, they don't know where our gases. And
we talked to them after we had a kind of
a mixer session and they said that we are so screwed.
(17:52):
We knew that America had energy. What we didn't know
is the energy is where the people in the manufacturing
are and there there they're message justice. How now do
we compete with that?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And how do they compete? They don't, they don't.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
There's a company Stockmart, your things they're they're located in Clarksburg.
They were thanks to Angela. They were on our panel
and they're explaining why they came to West Virginia. It's
been fifteen years ago. And then their CEO told me
after the after the event, he said, we're trying to
make more of the same product in Germany that we
(18:33):
make that we made here for thirty years. We can't
get the permits to do it. I guess where they're
going to make it. They're going to make in Clarksburg. Now,
they're going to expand Clarksburg because they can't get a
permit in Germany. But there, raw materials are here, They've
got a workforce that's already here. They've already but continuous
property to their Clarksburg location. They're ringing in a rail sighting.
(18:57):
So they're going to expand in West Virginia where they
couldn't do it in Germany. What's that mean for us
as West Virginia jobs? What does it mean for the region,
Because anytime you see an expansion, whether it's in West
Virginia Orillo Pennsylvania, it kind of raises all ships. Yeah,
because you know, whether you live in Saint Clairsville or wheeling.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
You got a car, you're going to go where you're
going to go, wherever the jobs are.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Oh my gosh, so this is this is this is
really an exciting time. We're talking to companies from just
this morning right One of the companies we're working with
an India that wants to come here later this month
or early October reached out. We've got a company from
Romania that's ready to come. We're looking at companies from Turkey.
So throughout literally the world is looking at this region
(19:45):
because we have something they don't have. We got abundant
economic energy. Our natural gas is about a dollar eighty
two dollars in mcf. That's same product. The identical product
in India is fifteen fifty. In Europe it's fourteen fifteen.
Now if you use that as a raw material, where
(20:06):
should you be? The guy from India that he came
up to our booth and by the way, just say,
you know how big a deal this is. We've gone
to a number of other events. We were at Select USA.
It's an event put on. A commerce department does a
phenomenal job in Washington, d C. And they work hard
for a year to bring foreign investment to the United States,
(20:30):
and all the states are they're all fifty states. Hill
Creston had a booth. They opened the doors at eleven
o'clock on Monday. I was there, Nathan, our president, was there.
We had another gentleman from Ohio there. Linda was my
wife was a facilitator, and we were swamped. I've done
(20:51):
trade shows for over forty years. Never saw anyone. I
guess I had two people talking to them. Everybody had
someone they were talking to, someone waiting for them. Then
that comes up to me and she said, see that
guy over there, he said he was here last year.
He said he's not leaving until he sees you. I
mean we were Nevada's across the aisle from us. They're
sitting there twiddling their thumbs, trying to figure out what's
(21:12):
going on. What's going on and when they come. The
people that came to our booth were manufacturers. They didn't
just come to talk. They came with plans. They said, Wow,
company from Poland says, here's we've got two hundred and
fifty jobs. Fifty of them are or white collar, the
other one hundred and ninetyear blue collar. Here's what we're
(21:33):
gonna make. Here's how much acreage we need. And so
what we do we physically take them to Ohio. We
physically take them to the West Virginia booth in Pennsylvania
and introduce them and then the states can work their magic.
But what our goal at schil Crescon is is to
convince these companies. And it's not that hard. It's like
selling it's almost like selling water to a guy that's
(21:56):
on fire. But they come to our booth and our
mission is to tell them that here's why you want
to be in this region and not the Carolina, it's
not the Gulf Coast, and certainly not places like California.
And when we explain that energy manufacturing jobs follow energy,
(22:17):
and what we have is abundant economical energy. And that's
when you look at that, it really eliminates probably forty
plus of the fifty states. But that's what's happening. So
once we and I can say this, the states do
a phenomenal job of they all do. Of the three
(22:37):
that I get to work with, of helping these folks
find sites, they put together economic development packages. And we're
really close with local folks. So we're seeing that and
we're already seeing you know, we talk about local companies expanding,
but TCL is three quarters of the way finished. They're
down the river, they're at New Martinsville. They're gonna have
(23:03):
the original goal was I think it was one hundred folks.
They've already announced an expansion for that property. They're gonna
be over two hund and fifty jobs in there, really,
and they're already I mean we're talking about they're building
modules over in India. They're gonna float them across the
Pond Pacific up the Ohio to that facility. But they've
already done three quarters of the site work there. Their
(23:26):
first modules will be I think later this month. They're
in October, so they're already moved by that plan. They
plan to be in operation in twenty five, so they've
already they've already hired people. There's already contractors on that site.
So next year, next year, they're gonna be an operation.
But they've already when we were in Charleston two months ago,
they announced an expansion they're gonna be they're already looking
(23:47):
at their second phase, which is more jobs, and that's
just down the river from where we're sitting today, and
what's exciting is the product that they're gonna make is
a food add food product they've been selling here for decades.
Well wait on that.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
On that note, we're gonna stop right now because we're
gonna do a part two.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Okay, it's fine.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Are you okay to stay?
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I'm fine?
Speaker 1 (24:12):
All righty, you got me fired up?
Speaker 3 (24:13):
I know, I do. I can see I've got a
handful of questions sitting in.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Yes, she does.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Do I get to stay around for part two?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
You can stay around for part two? So everyone, thank
you so much for joining us for community connections and commerce.
My name is Wendy Anderson. I'm sitting in for Drake
Watson and as the host. Uh So, we'll hopefully will
be back soon, but if you have any questions for
this first part, please send your questions to OHUE podcast
(24:43):
dot Ohio dot ed U. Again, that's a o U
E podcast dot Ohio dot edu. My name is Wendy
Anderson with Sam and Greg we and Linda. We will
be right back for part two. There
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