When Lynnda and I went to Japan a few years ago, I knew where Tokyo and Mount Fuji were. I didn’t know where the Japanese major manufacturing centers were. Before we went to Germany last year, I knew the location of major cities. I didn’t know the Dusseldorf/Cologne area is a major manufacturing and petrochemical region or the state of NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) where Dusseldorf and Cologne are located is also a major mining region.

The USA is much larger than either of those countries. What we learned at Shale Crescent USA from working with businesspeople from all over the world is that most people, even businesspeople, from overseas don’t know any more about the USA than we know about their countries.

We learned from our international meeting contacts, like SelectUSA, and overseas visits, most foreigners (and sadly some Americans) don’t know the location of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. They don’t know about our manufacturing and energy. They know where New York City, Disney World, Texas and Hollywood are. They know the USA produces a lot of oil and natural gas and wrongly assume it all comes from Texas.

Last year, the Shale Crescent USA organization traveled to Europe to put on a single-day event with U.S. Commercial Services in Dusseldorf, Germany, for companies interested in coming to or investing in the USA. One of the goals was to make European companies aware that all the energy is NOT in Texas! If West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania were a country, it would be the third-largest natural gas-producing country in the world, behind the rest of the USA (without SCUSA) and Russia. The Shale Crescent USA region produces over one-third of the USA’s natural gas, up from just 3% 15 years ago. Sixty-two percent of the new growth of U.S. natural gas supply is from the Shale Crescent USA region.

Foreigners and some Americans don’t know the Shale Crescent USA region is the birthplace of the American oil and gas industry, the coal industry, the steel industry, the automobile industry, the glass industry, the rubber industry, the petrochemical industry and U.S. manufacturing in general.

Manufacturing always follows energy. When our region’s oil and gas was thought depleted in the 1970s, the SCUSA region lost most of these industries and the jobs they created. New horizontal drilling technology of the early 2000s created the Shale Revolution. The Marcellus and Utica are two of the three largest natural gas fields in the world. This is bringing about the expansion and reshoring of manufacturing and creation of jobs in our region.

This week, the Shale Crescent USA Team will get to tell the SCUSA Region story to over 250 companies in the Netherlands, Belgium and France as part of the U.S. Commercial Services Roadshow. In addition to our region, over 20 states including Texas, Florida, California, Georgia and New York will be part of the Roadshow. We have one-on-one meetings set up with over 30 companies so far. Other invitations are pending. Most of these companies have decided to expand to the USA. The question is, where in the USA? At SelectUSA, every state claimed to be No. 1. Companies were confused.

SCUSA’s focus is on European manufacturers because that is where our region has a competitive advantage. If a company wants to come to the USA to make chocolates, they can do that almost anywhere. Manufacturing always follows energy. The first concern of European manufacturers is economical, dependable energy, which our region has in abundance. The Gulf Coast is our chief competitor.

The next question we get is about workforce. This region has been manufacturing for over 100 years. We can compete with any region of the USA. The SCUSA has an extensive river and rail system for process water and moving goods. In real estate, it is about location, location, location – which is our region’s greatest advantage. The Shale Crescent USA is the only place in the world where a manufacturer can locate on top of their feedstock and energy AND be in the middle of their customers. Half of the U.S. population is within a day’s drive from the Marietta- Parkersburg area.

These are all great advantages, but if foreign companies aren’t aware of them, it doesn’t matter. Shale Crescent USA’s job is creating an awareness of our region. JobsOhio, the West Virginia Development Office and Team Pennsylvania can take it from there.

One goal of the Shale Crescent USA organization is helping foreign companies expand to the USA. We are looking for ways to create synergy between our region and Europe. We know what it is like when industry leaves. My uncles and cousins all lost their jobs when the steel industry left Pittsburgh. A European company may be able to do their energy intensive manufacturing here and ship the intermediate product back to Europe for a value add, creating jobs and hope on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Shale Crescent USA region has an environmental advantage most people don’t realize. By manufacturing products here where the energy, raw materials and customers are all in the same region, transportation is reduced from thousands of miles to a few hundred, dramatically lowering emissions and reducing manufacturing cost. A recent Shale Crescent study shows U.S. manufacturers can now successfully compete with China because of transportation cost advantage.

In spite of U.S. and European emissions reductions, global emissions have yet to peak, primarily because of Chinese emissions. No one likes to talk about Chinese emissions, maybe because they don’t have a solution. Bringing manufacturing back to the SCUSA to operate under U.S. environmental law where transportation is minimized can finally begin to reduce global emissions.

Success starts with a single step. We have an opportunity to help to bring manufacturing jobs back to our region and reduce global emissions. Working with JobsOhio, the WVDO and Team PA, we have a great team. We will let you know how it goes.

Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com, is the director of marketing for Shale Crescent USA. He is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and over 40 years experience in the energy industry. Greg is a leadership expert, high school soccer coach, professional speaker and author of four books and many published articles.