Pennsylvania is one of the world leaders when it comes natural gas fields and natural gas production.

A group of business and civic leaders in Pennsylvania believe the time is now for the state to capitalize on its greatest resource by calling for a new era of growth in Pennsylvania. The group of business leaders, which has created an initiative called “Forge the Future,” recently released its Ideas for Action report that highlights what the Commonwealth can and should implement to capitalize on its world-class energy assets and grow its way to more revenue, population and job growth.

The steering committee includes Chevron Appalachia president Stacey Olson, Peoples Natural Gas president and CEO Morgan O’Brien, Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry president and CEO Gene Barr, Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Rob Wonderling, Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association president David N. Taylor and former CEO of Allegheny Conference on Community Development Dennis Yablonsky.

“We sit on the third largest gas and NGL field on the planet, yet here in Pennsylvania we have only benefitted from a relatively small fraction of the potential economic value,” Yablonsky said during a press conference on Oct. 11. “The potential so far has really been on the upstream, the production of gas. We believe and this report shows the facts that it’s time to leverage midstream, the storage and distribution as well as the downstream, the usage of gas across the Commonwealth.”

Gene Barr said the state’s uncompetitive tax structure (9.999% corporate tax rate) and lack of infrastructure to get gas have been the cause of Pennsylvania losing out on economic opportunities. The report, however, puts forth an agenda to make energy-enabled growth a reality.

Ideas for Action identifies four primary areas for Pennsylvania initiatives:

  • Create awareness and education: A communications and education effort, involving the energy industry, the statewide business community and government leaders, must be initiated to help Pennsylvanians achieve a more thorough understanding of the historic economic growth potential afforded by our vast energy resources.
  • Make energy a priority: There are billions of dollars in economic growth, wages and investment potential in play. Pennsylvania should have a Cabinet-level energy official with a focused staff/team and the funding necessary to lead a successful energy-enabled economic development strategy.
  • Review/reform tax policy and incentives: Pennsylvania tax policy should be reviewed and revised in the context of our potential growth in energy and manufacturing to better maximize downstream development of industries that will use our vast natural gas and NGL resources.
  • Collaborate on state workforce development: Currently, there is an array of workforce development programs across the state, but little to no coordination. Pennsylvania should review all workforce development programs and identify opportunities for broad-based collaboration.

“The key now is how do we make best use of that resource?” Barr said. “Exports are certainly a part of that but capitalizing on other issues and other uses becomes crucially important. We do have some things that stand in our way.”

But if corrected, the Ideas for Action report asserts there is a worthwhile economic benefit for the entire state of Pennsylvania. The report says that $60 billion would be added to the state’s gross domestic product—going from $720 billion to $780 billion—if the state took advantage of full usage of its natural gas resource. It would also add 100,000 good paying jobs, increase the demand for gas from 5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) to 9 Tcf and would add over $1 billion to the state’s tax revenue as a result of the economic activity.

“Those are really impressive macro facts backed up in detail in the original report,” Yablonsky said.

The report as explored 5 areas that should be explored strategically:

1. Power and heating

2. Petrochemicals

3. Advance materials

4. Advance manufacturing

5. Infrastructure and exports

The Forge the Future group, which began as project between Chevron and Peoples Natural Gas, engaged over 100 Pennsylvania business leaders to dive into the issues in more detail and produce targeted ideas that will drive a growth agenda for the state.

One major issue is identifying a workforce that can meet the demand that will need to be in place to handle energy industry demands. Pennsylvania, particularly the rural areas, has experienced a steep decline in population. Pennsylvania is near the bottom in the nation when it comes to population growth.

“We need to grow and we need to grow a modern 21st century economy and we think that the Forge the Future effort, particularly around our energy assets and all of the economic actors in the energy space is a key element to doing that,” Wonderling said.

He added we are currently in the next industrial revolution and that Pennsylvania and its vast energy supply should be a major player.

“How we use our upstream and downstream energy resources everything from the manufacturing of plastics to carbon fiber, to glass and metals to a whole a range of downstream manufacturing opportunities that are global and modern in scope. We have the assets to make that so,” Wonderling said. “We also think the notion that we should position our Commonwealth as a leader in the next industrial revolution isn’t mid-Atlantic or even U.S. based, that is a global aspiration. In our market we see global enterprises all of the time. We see no reason why Pennsylvania cannot be part of that revolution.”