STOP TRANSPORTATION CUTS
The state legislators are considering budget proposals that will gut Connecticut's transportation funding.
If passed these proposals will cut transit services and road repairs. This will cripple our economy, impede mobility, increase delays, and make travel less safe.
Tell your legislators to oppose transportation cuts!
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Need a job? Gas tax hike has created a 'surge' of openings VIDEO
(WIS) -
At Lane Construction’s asphalt plant in Orangeburg County, Plant Manager Lee Barrack is getting ready for a big task.“It is a big task,” he said. “We’re not going to get out of the hole that we have dug in the State of South Carolina overnight. It’s going to take a good many years.”
Lane Construction will soon be tasked with rebuilding the state’s crumbling roads. But Lane is just one piece of a puzzle full of private contractors.
Thanks to a recent gas tax hike, it’s getting busier at plants like Lane’s across the state.
“There’s a lot of work out there right now, and we have some as well as other contractors,” Barrack said.
Because the gas tax will increase by two-cents every year for the next few years, the new money available to fix roads will continue to grow over that period.
As that happens, contractors like Barrack will be buying new equipment, opening new plants, and drastically growing their workforces. That process has already begun.
“All contractors have brought new plants online, they’ve hired an additional workforce, and we’re still looking for the additional workforce,” he said.
In fact, the trade association that represents contractors in the Carolinas, Carolinas AGC, said there are still plenty of openings throughout the state for both skilled and unskilled workers.
“Even if you don’t know how to do this type of work, or you’ve never done it before and you want an opportunity, it’s there now,” Barrack added.
Barrack said they’re jobs not for everyone, but he’s hoping more people will consider joining them soon – with roads to repave and interstates to improve.
Meanwhile, SCDOT Secretary Christy Hall told WIS the Roads Law could create 48,000 jobs in South Carolina.
“Our interests are to provide job opportunities for South Carolinians first,” she said. “If you have an interest in construction and making a difference every day, come join our industry.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Economics could kill Keystone XL
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The proposed Keystone XL pipeline survived nine years of protests, lawsuits and political wrangling that saw the Obama administration reject it and President Donald Trump revive it, but now the project faces the possibility of death by economics.
Low oil prices and the high cost of extracting Canadian crude from oil sands are casting new doubts on Keystone XL as executives with the Canadian company that wants to build it face the final regulatory hurdle next week in Nebraska.
The pipeline proposed in 2008 has faced dozens of state and federal delays, many of them prompted by environmental groups who ultimately persuaded President Barack Obama to deny federal approval in November 2015. President Donald Trump resuscitated the project in March, declaring that Calgary-based TransCanada would create “an incredible pipeline.”
After all that, a TransCanada executive raised eyebrows in the energy industry last week when he suggested that the pipeline developer doesn’t know whether it will move forward with the project. Paul Miller, an executive vice president who is overseeing the project, told an investor call that company officials won’t decide until late November or early December whether to start construction.
“We’ll make an assessment of the commercial support and the regulatory approvals at that time,” Miller said in the conference call Friday with investors.
The company has invited customers to bid for long-term contracts to ship oil on the pipeline. The bidding will run through September.
An energy expert said the project has been delayed so long it may no longer make economic sense.
“Frankly, in the current price climate, it’s probably not going to be a going venture unless there’s a massive improvement in technology” for processing Canadian crude, said Charles Mason, a University of Wyoming professor of petroleum and gas economics. Crude oil was trading at around $49.50 a barrel on Wednesday, down from highs of more than $100 in 2014.
The 1,179-mile pipeline would transport oil from tar sands deposits in Alberta, Canada, across Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines that feed Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
Associated Builders and Contractors Ask Congress to Expand Construction Apprenticeship Programs
Michael Bennett, vice president of the Cianbro Cos., Pittsfield, Maine, told Congress that industry-driven construction apprenticeship programs should play a bigger role in government efforts to close the workforce/skills gap that has left 500,000 construction jobs unfilled in the United States today. Bennett testified on behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development to call for support for President Trump's recent executive order expanding apprenticeships, which would help ensure job seekers get exactly the training required for success in today's job market.
“At Associated Builders and Contractors, as with Cianbro, we support all workforce programs that develop people and help them reach their potential, whether they're government-defined, like apprenticeships, or industry-driven,” said Bennett. “As we look at the holistic picture of workforce development, successful models combine technical knowledge and proficiency through hands-on application and on-the-job experience. When you employ the earn-while-you-learn model and support individuals with lifelong learning and mentoring, the opportunities are endless.”
• Establishing reciprocity across federal and state apprenticeship councils;
• Allowing nationally recognized, portable, industry-recognized credentialing programs with third-party oversight, including targeted programs for high-demand skills; and
• Ensuring that such programs are industry- and market-driven, competency-based and flexible in structure, scheduling and duration to address industry needs. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The pipeline proposed in 2008 has faced dozens of state and federal delays, many of them prompted by environmental groups who ultimately persuaded President Barack Obama to deny federal approval in November 2015. President Donald Trump resuscitated the project in March, declaring that Calgary-based TransCanada would create “an incredible pipeline.”
After all that, a TransCanada executive raised eyebrows in the energy industry last week when he suggested that the pipeline developer doesn’t know whether it will move forward with the project. Paul Miller, an executive vice president who is overseeing the project, told an investor call that company officials won’t decide until late November or early December whether to start construction.
“We’ll make an assessment of the commercial support and the regulatory approvals at that time,” Miller said in the conference call Friday with investors.
The company has invited customers to bid for long-term contracts to ship oil on the pipeline. The bidding will run through September.
An energy expert said the project has been delayed so long it may no longer make economic sense.
“Frankly, in the current price climate, it’s probably not going to be a going venture unless there’s a massive improvement in technology” for processing Canadian crude, said Charles Mason, a University of Wyoming professor of petroleum and gas economics. Crude oil was trading at around $49.50 a barrel on Wednesday, down from highs of more than $100 in 2014.
The 1,179-mile pipeline would transport oil from tar sands deposits in Alberta, Canada, across Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines that feed Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
Associated Builders and Contractors Ask Congress to Expand Construction Apprenticeship Programs
Michael Bennett, vice president of the Cianbro Cos., Pittsfield, Maine, told Congress that industry-driven construction apprenticeship programs should play a bigger role in government efforts to close the workforce/skills gap that has left 500,000 construction jobs unfilled in the United States today. Bennett testified on behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development to call for support for President Trump's recent executive order expanding apprenticeships, which would help ensure job seekers get exactly the training required for success in today's job market.
“At Associated Builders and Contractors, as with Cianbro, we support all workforce programs that develop people and help them reach their potential, whether they're government-defined, like apprenticeships, or industry-driven,” said Bennett. “As we look at the holistic picture of workforce development, successful models combine technical knowledge and proficiency through hands-on application and on-the-job experience. When you employ the earn-while-you-learn model and support individuals with lifelong learning and mentoring, the opportunities are endless.”
Bennett called for flexibility in designing construction apprenticeship programs and other types of training programs in an “all-of-the-above” approach to workforce development that aligns with the needs of the educational system and businesses, including:
• Creating multiple pathways to excellence for apprentices;• Establishing reciprocity across federal and state apprenticeship councils;
• Allowing nationally recognized, portable, industry-recognized credentialing programs with third-party oversight, including targeted programs for high-demand skills; and
• Ensuring that such programs are industry- and market-driven, competency-based and flexible in structure, scheduling and duration to address industry needs. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE