The USA is one of the few countries in the world whose people have personal liberty (i.e. freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to gather, etc.) and economic opportunity. It takes both to create true freedom. In the Disney films, The Little Mermaid, King Triton tells his daughter Ariel, “As long as you live under my ocean, you’ll obey my rules.” The owner of the house gets to make the rules. House guests obey them or they can choose to leave. When we stay at a hotel we have to obey hotel rules or leave. If you live in your parents’ house you live under their rules. They have the power. Especially if they are still paying for their child’s car or cell phone. The grown child depending on their parents or the government isn’t truly free until they take advantage of the economic opportunity available to them in this country.

Economic opportunity gives young people the ability to get out of their parents’ basement and be independent as long as they do the preparation required for today’s jobs. In the USA, we can choose to start our own business. Governments encourage economic development in many ways. SelectUSA is an example of the Federal Government creating an event encouraging foreign companies of all types to come to the USA. The States show what they have to offer. Foreign companies can get very specific information from State, local and regional Economic Development Organizations like Shale Crescent USA. Jobs created by private sector U.S. companies and foreign companies investing in the USA grow our economy and pay the cost of government.

To be free economically there are some things we can’t rely on other nations to provide. We must be able to feed our people, provide a large part of their energy needs and be able to manufacture critical items for our military and our people. The USA has been successful in feeding our country and much of the world. We can be energy independent. Improvements in drilling technology created the Shale Revolution. By 2012 the USA was again leading the world in oil and natural gas production. Manufacturing is another story. Much of our manufacturing and millions of jobs left the USA over several decades and went overseas to countries like China.

The COVID pandemic in 2020 showed Americans how serious the problem was. When China went into lockdown many manufactured products went away. Personal protective equipment for health care workers wasn’t available. Nurses were wearing trash bags instead. Protective masks, vinyl gloves and even hand sanitizer were no longer made in the USA and unavailable. People in hard hit New York City couldn’t get ventilators and had to wait on planes from China.

Americans responded. My wife Lynnda is a nurse and was impacted. She got her sewing friends together. They made masks to protect nurses and their families. Their masks were three layers of cloth with a protective polypropylene layer in between. Other American companies acted.

A distillery in Kentucky started making hand sanitizer instead of Bourbon. Dow in Charleston, WV added a line to manufacture hand sanitizer. A local plastics processor started making ventilator parts.

Shale Crescent USA acted by putting out a pitch to our media contacts, “Does the pandemic show Made the USA is now essential?” The pitch put Shale Crescent USA on over 70 radio shows coast to coast as a guest. This included nationally syndicated shows like Westwood One’s First Watch heard in all 50 states. They aired 15 minutes of our interview. Regardless of politics, 100% of the hosts and callers were mad at China and frustrated with the lack of American manufacturing and jobs. In Chicago I was a guest on WVON, flagship station for the black community. Host Perry Small asked, “Mr. Kozera, we have a lot of vacant buildings in Chicago.

What can we do to bring manufacturing back to Chicago. If we can bring back manufacturing and create jobs, we can give our young people hope and end the gun violence in this city.” Perry is spot on.

Accelerated by the pandemic, manufacturing and jobs have come back. More jobs are coming. Surgical gloves are now made in Ohio. Nucor Steel will be making steel in West Virginia. Intel will manufacture microchips in Columbus. TCL from India is under construction in New Martinsville, WV. Other companies in the region are expanding. Because of Europe’s lack of dependable economical energy and feedstock their manufacturing is expanding to the USA and the Shale Crescent. A major difference at SelectUSA this year, prospects came to us with very specific plans and time lines for expansion. Some companies want to start manufacturing as early as 2025. Our challenge is developing the workforce to meet upcoming demand.

Dependable economical energy is essential and the USA has it in abundance, if Washington doesn’t muck it up. One comment we hear from European companies is, “We don’t understand why your government wants to copy what Europe is doing with renewable energy. We are coming here because what the European Union is doing doesn’t work.” Any new energy source needs to show reliability and cost effectiveness before we shut down existing energy like coal. I always make sure I have a new car to drive home before I trade my existing car.

To remain a free nation, we can’t rely on other nations especially nations who are potential enemies for our food, energy and critical manufacturing. China controls many of the minerals we need for renewables and EVs. We must find alternatives before banning gasoline vehicles, like California. We learned lessons from the pandemic about the importance of U.S. manufacturing we can’t afford to forget. The environment benefits from reduced emissions by more manufacturing under U.S. environmental law, using U.S. energy and selling to U.S. consumers, eliminating transportation. Most important, U.S. manufacturing creates economic opportunity giving hope to our young for a bright future. Perry’s dream for Chicago can come true. Happy Birthday USA!

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