Abundant U.S. Energy Attracts Foreign Companies

Image Via Oil & Gas Refining

by Sean Hackbarth, Free Enterprise: Abundant U.S. energy, courtesy of hydraulic fracturing tapping shale oil and natural gas deposits as well as other sources, is attracting manufacturers from Europe where energy prices are significantly higher. The Washington Post reports:[I]n Ludwigshafen [Germany], many people view the United States as the land of the future. Since 2009, BASF has channeled more than $5.7 billion into new investments in North America, including a formic acid plant under construction in Louisiana, where the company will manufacture a chemical used to de-ice runways, tan leather and preserve animal feed.U.S. energy abundance isn’t only drawing business from across the Atlantic. A Toronto Globe and Mail story notes that Canada’s Methanex will move a methanol plant from Chile to Louisiana and could move a second one to be closer to supplies of U.S. natural gas, a methanol feedstock. Methanex’s CEO told the paper, “We’ve become more and more … confident with the shale and tight gas revolution here in North America.”
As the Washington Post points out, this foreign investment will translate into jobs:Among them is Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine, which announced last month that it will build an iron-ore processing plant in Texas to take advantage of the low energy prices. The plant is expected to cost $715 million and create 150 jobs. The company aims to almost double its total output by 2020, largely through U.S. expansion, and it has mostly abandoned making any major new investments in Europe.
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Royal Dutch Shell announced plans last year to build a multibillion-­dollar petrochemical plant in Pennsylvania that will employ several hundred full-time workers and as many as 10,000 people during construction."People are looking at the U.S. differently, seeing the U.S. as much more competitive in the world," said energy expert, Daniel Yergin.

We can thank abundant U.S. energy for this.
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Sean Hackbarth is a blogger and does policy advocacy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

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