Congressman Joins Locally Held Roundtable

Logan Daily News. Hocking County’s congressman visited Logan Monday afternoon to join a roundtable discussion on Ohio’s oil and gas industries.Newly elected Republican Congressman Mike Carey met with representatives from the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP), the Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA) and on a local level, Kilbarger Construction, Inc. where the roundtable met, at 450 Gallagher Avenue.Carey told The Logan Daily News what the roundtable, which was not open to the public or press, discussed.“We talked about energy policy and how it, and (what) this administration has done to it,” he said. “Not only relying on outside foreign sources for energy, and what we need to do to help develop domestic energy – because it’s important – but we also have to make sure that we develop our manufacturing base, and so much of it is petroleum products.”The roundtable also talked about access to oil reserves, surety bonding for oil and gas companies, and “all the things necessary for workforce development,” Carey said. “A lot of folks are having trouble getting people (to come) back to work – they’re still getting that free money to not work.”According to Business Journal Daily, federally funded pandemic unemployment ($300 payments) for Ohioans ended in September by order of Gov. DeWine (standard unemployment benefits are still available). The Ohio Capital Journal reported that DeWine said $300 weekly payments made unemployed Ohioans less likely to want to return to the workforce.However, earlier this month cleveland.com reported that labor data already suggests that the lack of pandemic unemployment payments did not cause a surge in the workforce as DeWine had intended.Carey said the panel also discussed the political “environment” in Washington, D.C. His experience has been good in the capital, he said, though busy, especially following Republican West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s nay vote on President Biden’s ongoing Build Back Better Plan. He described being briefed on daily issues as “drinking from the firehose.”Carey represents Hocking County in Ohio’s 15th U.S. House District, which is composed of all of Clinton, Fairfield, Hocking, Madison, Morgan, Perry, Pickaway and Vinton counties, and parts of Athens, Fayette, Franklin and Ross counties.Carey’s district was formerly represented by Steve Stivers, who resigned in May to become CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, a private “pro-business” organization. According to a previous Logan Daily News report, Carey beat his opponent Allison Russo (D) in Hocking County by more than 2,000 votes in November’s special Congressional election.According to the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, more than 208,000 Ohioans are employed in the oil and gas industry. When asked how Carey can ensure that oil and gas jobs grow in his district, and are accessible to people of his district, Carey deferred the question to OOGEEP Executive Director George Brown.The majority of those 208,000 jobs are going to Ohioans, Brown said. “They’re folks that are from communities here... I have identified over 75 different career paths that folks can go into in the industry.”Brown’s organization works with “education and workforce development” to “make sure that we’re training students and people here in Ohio to fill those careers and those opportunities,” he said.Jim Kilbarger, of his eponymous construction company, hires a lot of locals, though many come from Noble County, he said.Each oil and gas job is different, Brown explained; some jobs require basic certifications, while others can require postgraduate degrees. According to salary.com, as of Nov. 29 the average Ohioan oil and gas engineer salary’s $99,954.“That’s what’s really unique about the industry — (there) are so many different options that are out there for Ohioans, and we encourage people to look at (those),” Brown said, adding that his organization works to help fund prospective oil and gas employees through scholarship programs.A former coal lobbyist, Carey also touched on how oil and gas share similarities with the coal industry.“What we have to be concerned with is the same people that are trying to stop coal exploration, coal development, are now going after natural gas and oil,” Carey said. “And what we’re seeing in the coal industry, literally seven years ago, is where you’re seeing them wanting to push the natural gas industry.”But Carey also pointed out the differences between coal, oil and gas. “(Natural gas) is used not only in power generation, (but) there’s other things,” Carey said. “From the coal side of things, (with) where the market is today, most coal is being sold out just because there’s not as much — there aren’t as many coal producers, but there’s definitely a demand for energy.”Carey also touched on the differences between coal, oil and gas and renewable sources of energy. “The difference between (them) and, say, renewables, (is) we don’t get subsidized — (they) don’t get subsidized.” Subsidization pushes other entities out of a free market, Carey explained. “We really should just be free and open, and you can compete for whatever is best for the consumer.”OOGA Director of Public Relations Mike Chadsey explained that there’s room for all types of energy sources in the state.“Because when you have a growing and robust economy, more end users that mean you manufacture more things domestically, you have a growing population who have helped the industry need all of that (to) power all that economic growth,” Chadsey said.Energy diversity is something that makes Ohio unique, Chadsey went on. “Ohio was blessed because we do have coal, nukes, oil and gas, wind, solar, geothermal — we’ve got it all,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”Click here to view the original article.