Collaboration and a shared commitment to environmental and workforce safety is at the foundation of producing and delivering the energy that modern life demands. Pennsylvania communities and families want and deserve around-the-clock access to affordable, reliable and clean energy — and we’re proud of the industry’s work, made up of talented and skilled local laborers, to deliver on that essential service.

Pennsylvania is a national leader in the safe production of clean-burning American natural gas. We’re blessed with an abundance of energy across the commonwealth, which is matched by our hardworking, dedicated and highly trained natural gas workforce, particularly our building and trade union women and men who live and work in our communities.

As our nation’s second largest producer of natural gas, Pennsylvania’s energy sector and union workers across the commonwealth work in tandem as one unified team. Focused together on innovation and continuous improvement, we’ve proven our ability to be both an economic and climate leader through the responsible production of natural gas made possible by world-class energy infrastructure.

Taken together, the Appalachian Basin — Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia — is the third largest natural gas producer in the world behind the U.S. itself and Russia. While production in the world’s most prolific natural gas basin continues to grow, greenhouse gas emissions continue to decline.

For example, as natural gas production increased 13% between 2018 and 2020 in Appalachia, emissions intensity declined 20% during that same time, according to Clean Air Task Force research. And this is just the beginning as we continue to develop safer and more sustainable solutions that deliver lower-carbon energy needed to power our economy here at home as well as to provide the secure energy resources our allies need aboard, especially in the face of Russia’s hostile attacks on the Ukraine.

Pennsylvania’s workers in no small part accelerated America’s shale revolution, helping to transform our nation’s energy outlook from weakness and scarcity to strength and abundance. That same vision, prioritizing our local workers, is ushering in a new wave of American energy development and manufacturing, where natural gas and renewables work together to decarbonize our economy while maintaining energy reliability or affordability.

While renewable energy sources steadily grow, natural gas remains the backbone and workhorse of our nation’s cleaner energy future. Abundant, clean, reliable — natural gas provides the baseload power generation needed to support renewable energy growth while ensuring affordable, around-the-clock electricity. In fact, natural gas power generation hit an all-time high this past July, according to federal data.

This positive natural gas progress is great news for American consumers, our environment and our allies aboard who have been held hostage by Moscow’s weaponization of their energy resources. What’s more, American natural gas is a winner for our skilled laborers. In fact, a North American Building Trades Union (NABTU) survey found “tradespeople working in energy construction report that they consider projects in oil and natural gas industries to have better wages, benefits, and opportunities than renewables projects.”

Not only do these energy jobs offer a vital pathway to middle class careers for Americans without a college education, but they also last longer, are more consistent, and are more complex compared to solar or wind installations. “Today’s oil and natural gas jobs are better for energy construction workers across the country in both the short and long term,” NABTU president Sean McGarvey has said.

As we gather to celebrate the shared benefits for consumers, workers and the environment thanks to Pennsylvania natural gas, we should also recognize the game-changing achievements made through the longstanding partnership between Pennsylvania energy and the state’s skilled labor workers.

Kenneth J. Broadbent and Jim Snell are president and secretary of the Pennsylvania Pipe Trades, which represents the union plumbing, pipefitting and sprinkler fitting industry. David Callahan is president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, representing unconventional natural gas development across Pennsylvania.

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