As a public policy collaborative with both federal and state policy expertise, True Transition advises and crafts policies that support American energy security, oil and gas workers, and their communities. We deal with the conditions and trends on the ground and find solutions for workers today. We move beyond slogans and provide the actual detailed path to meet our nation’s needs today.
The Big Cleanup
After 150 years of oil and gas production, an estimated 10 million wells pockmark the United States. Many of these wells are unplugged and inactive or legacy wells plugged with obsolete technology. Even a modern plugged oil or gas well does not mean a permanently sealed well. Steel corrodes. Pressure builds. Gas seeps. This figure does not include state or federal waters, where 18,000 miles of pipeline have been decommissioned in place. Many of these pipelines have shifted and now obstruct other industrial uses.
American energy workers are the precise workforce to plug, abandon, and monitor these wells.
The Water Workforce
From shipyards to fabrication yards, from underwater welders to hospitality and support crew: the maritime industry has supported American oil and gas production for decades. But after the oil price crash of 2014, oil and gas companies contracted fewer and fewer domestic offshore supply vessels. Today, many of those vessels are dry docked or have moved to work offshore other nations.
As offshore oil and gas moves to deeper waters and larger plays, the need for these support industries and workers is diminishing. Our maritime industries need to diversify, and American energy workers can build offshore wind farms, armor our coasts from storms, and build tomorrow’s industries.
The Public Dredge Fleet
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for maintaining 12,000 miles of inland and intracoastal waterways, 180 ports, and 95,471 miles of shoreline with a fleet of just 4 publicly owned hopper dredge vessels and 15 privately held vessels. The construction of and maintenance of a national dredge fleet will create thousands of shipyard and maritime jobs throughout the United States. American mariners will be needed to crew both the ocean going and inland public dredge fleets. New generation vessels working full-time to keep American waterways and ports accessible and protect coastal communities will provide good civilian jobs nationally.