U-M experts call for policies to turn shale gas boom into manufacturing jobs

March 19, 2014
Contact:
  • umichnews@umich.edu

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 8 a.m.-noon March 28, 2014

EVENT: “Shale Gas: A Game Changer for American Manufacturing,” a meeting where key decision-makers from industry and the public sector will develop policy recommendations that aim to leverage the nation’s natural gas boom to boost domestic manufacturing and create jobs.

“We need to figure out what the barriers are for firms today, and what it’s going to take to unleash a manufacturing renaissance,” said Sridhar Kota, director of the University of Michigan Institute for Manufacturing Leadership and the Herrick Professor of Engineering. “The U.S. needs a strategic plan and a suite of economically, socially and environmentally viable policies to responsibly leverage the new abundance of low-cost natural gas, both as feedstock for the chemical industry and fuel for energy-intensive manufacturing sectors.”

Natural gas could provide an affordable and cleaner-burning energy source to power energy-intensive factories that make aluminum, steel, paper, glass and food. It’s also the raw material for chemicals, fertilizers and plastic products, many of which can be made competitively in the U.S. today, Kota says. The American Chemistry Council estimates that shale gas could lower domestic energy costs by an estimated $12 billion annually through 2025 and create 1 million new jobs.

“While numbers like these show that shale gas is indeed a game changer, it is important to develop policies for natural gas production, utilization and transportation that maximize the benefits of this important domestic resource, while minimizing the environmental footprint of these activities,” said Mark Barteau, director of the U-M Energy Institute and DTE Energy Professor of Advanced Energy Research.

Speakers include:

  • Norman Augustine, retired chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin Corp.
  • Calvin Dooley, president and CEO, American Chemistry Council
  • Steve Hamburg, chief scientist, Environmental Defense Fund
  • Thomas Kalil, deputy director for technology and innovation, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
  • David McCurdy, president and CEO, American Gas Association
  • Paul O’Neill, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

The speakers and other industry panelists will discuss issues such as barriers to investment, regulations, role of federal and state governments, tax incentives, market and price uncertainty, and impact on manufacturing jobs and economic growth. In about two months, the U-M team will release a report that includes policy recommendations.

PLACE: National Press Club, 13th floor conference rooms, 529 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.

INFORMATION: For the full agenda, see http://iml.umich.edu/?page=agenda

SPONSORS: U-M Institute for Manufacturing Leadership and U-M Energy Institute

 

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