Oct 17, 2013 3 min read

In less than a week, two meetings in our region this month underscored the emerging job opportunities in energy and manufacturing as well as some challenges those in workforce development and skilled labor unions are experiencing in filling those jobs.

In the first, a meeting promoted the region’s annual BotsIQ competition for high school students as a way to spark a connection among the science, technology, engineering and math disciplines and the job opportunities that are available in the manufacturing sector.

Three days later, at the Pennsylvania Energy and Manufacturing summit in Pittsburgh, labor union business managers and leaders from several manufacturing companies discussed challenges in finding qualified people for job openings.

Coverage of both meetings is included in this month’s Energy Report to underscore the sea change occurring with as one participant put it, “not just jobs, but careers” in manufacturing as a result of the cheap natural gas made available from the Marcellus Shale.

It’s been decades since manufacturing has been on the rise in our region, and employers and others in workforce development will have to continually “sell” to high schools the idea of manufacturing as a rewarding career option for students.

“It’s a battle we have to win here,” said one area employer.

Also on our radar screen this month is an update of residential solar power as provided by John Swanson. Swanson, who founded the engineering simulation software company that became Ansys Inc., has been seeing excellent results from solar panels he placed atop his Florida retirement home, but says “anybody can do it” when it comes to small-scale photovoltaic solar panels.

On another angle of the solar energy front, an Associated Press story covers the changes occurring in the practice of homeowners selling excess solar power back to power companies.

The biggest sea change brewing in energy, one that trumps even the new job opportunities being created, is the announcement by the Energy Information Agency this month that U.S. oil and gas production will outpace that of Russia this year, making America the world’s biggest energy producer.

While the move to abundant domestic production of natural gas and oil signal game-changing implications for the United States and much of the rest of the world, J.R. Shaw reminds us that there’s always time to step back and enjoy the pace of leisure activities that accompany whichever of the four seasons is here.

The accompanying calendar invites readers to take in events planned each month across Washington County.