Old and new industries are important to Valley’s heatlh

In recent days the Mahoning Valley has been paying attention to stories about job prospects, especially in two disparate industries that represent the old and the new. The old is worth saving, and the new is worth pursuing.

The Valley’s new prospects were being showcased at the Youngstown Ohio Utica and Natural Gas Conference and Expo organized by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber at the Covelli Centre downtown and the Holiday Inn in Boardman.

Tapping reserves of natural gas and oil beneath eastern Ohio represents a new industrial frontier. These are energy reserves that were out of reach under old technology. Exploiting them now will mean income for property owners, private and public, as well as wages for workers directly in drilling and in ancillary industries.

The full potential of this resource is only beginning to be explored, and all of its implications to the local and state economy, as well as to the nation’s energy policy, can only be imagined.

Of course there are environmental concerns that cannot be ignored by drillers and by those responsible for disposing of the by-products of the process that has come to commonly be known as fracking.

But the Chamber’s shale conference brought together more than 1,000 attendees to talk about all aspects of the industry and to establish business relations that could fuel prosperity for a new generation of workers.

Hoping to save a mill

Meanwhile, in Warren there were talks between the new owner of the RG Steel facility and the workers who were furloughed when RG went into bankruptcy.

Charles Betters of Monaca, Pa., who bought the plant for $16 million in bankruptcy court, told a crowd of former workers outside the Pine Avenue plant that he is attempting to find a buyer who will take over its operation.

There had been fear that Betters was primarily interested in cannibalizing the plant, but he assured the workers that he will be winterizing it, an investment that struck an encouraging note.

As we have said before, the state of Ohio has a crucial role to play in helping to get the plant back into production. Kristi Tanner, managing director for manufacturing at JobsOhio, told The Vindicator the state is “an active participant in supporting the plant’s future and supporting the workforce.” JobsOhio is the private, nonprofit corporation formed by Gov. John Kasich and the General Assembly to lead Ohio’s job-creation effort.

If JobsOhio played a key role in resurrecting the Warren plant, which had employed about 1,000 people, it would go a long way toward showing that Kasich and the Republicans lawmakers who backed him had a better idea for how to spur industrial development than past administrations of either party. This is one of the test cases on which the administration’s industrial policy will be judged — at least in the Mahoning Valley.

Ohio and the Valley welcome new industrial opportunities, but it is also important to preserve viable older industrial assets whenever and however possible.