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20–055 PDF 2016

S. HRG. 114–334 

HOW SMALL BUSINESSES ARE SUPPORTING 

AMERICA’S ENERGY RENAISSANCE 

FIELD HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

MARCH 2, 2015 

Printed for the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 

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(II) 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana, Chairman 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland, Ranking Member 

JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho 

MARCO RUBIO, Florida 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

TIM SCOTT, South Carolina 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

CORY GARDNER, Colorado 

JONI ERNST, Iowa 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware 

MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii 

GARY C. PETERS, Michigan 

ZAK BAIG, Republican Staff Director 

ANN JACOBS, Democratic Staff Director 

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C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS

Page 

Vitter, Hon. David, Chairman, and a U.S. Senator from Louisiana ................... 1 

WITNESSES

Joey Jarreau, Owner, Southside Machine Works, Lake Charles, LA ................. 10 

Bryan Galley, Owner, Bryan Galley Builders, Inc., Lake Charles, LA ............... 14 

Neil Aspinwall, Chancellor, SOWELA Technical College, Lake Charles, LA ..... 20 

Patricia Outtrim, Vice President, Governmental and Regulatory Affairs, 

Cheniere Energy, Inc., Houston, TX ................................................................... 24 

ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED

Aspinwall, Neil 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 20 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 22 

Galley, Bryan 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 14 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 17 

Jarreau, Joey 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 10 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 12 

Outtrim, Patricia 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 24 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 27 

Vitter, Hon. David 

Opening statement ........................................................................................... 1 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 4 

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HOW SMALL BUSINESSES ARE SUPPORTING 

AMERICA’S ENERGY RENAISSANCE 

MONDAY, MARCH 2, 2015 

UNITED STATES SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP, 

Lake Charles, LA. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 12:30 p.m., in Police 

Jury Meeting Room, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, 1015 Pithon 

Street, Hon. David Vitter, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. 

Present: Senator Vitter. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER, CHAIRMAN, 

AND A U.S. SENATOR FROM LOUISIANA 

Chairman VITTER. Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome. I’m 

really glad you could be here. 

I’m Senator David Vitter, Chair of the Senate Small Business 

Committee. As the new chair of that committee, one of the first 

things I wanted to do was bring the committee to Louisiana and 

bring it to the real world, not just in Washington. So that’s what 

today is about, reaching out to all of you. Also, we have four expert 

witnesses from here in Louisiana talking about energy jobs and everything those mean to our economy. 

I was going to be joined here by Congressman Charles Boustany. 

Charles and I work really well together, particularly on this issue 

of energy jobs. Unfortunately, he’s stuck traveling. He was in Salt 

Lake City this weekend and got backed up in terms of traveling 

back. He sends his apologies. He’s not going to be able to make it. 

Let me explain how the program is going to work. This is a 

Small Business Committee field hearing on energy jobs. I’ll make 

some opening comments about our main topic, energy jobs, here 

today. Then we’ll hear from our four witnesses who are going to 

talk about how small businesses are supporting America’s energy 

renaissance, particularly here in Louisiana. They will each testify 

and make comments for about 5 minutes each, and then we’ll have 

an exchange with follow-up, comments, questions, discussion between me and all of them. So that’s how the program will work. 

Again, thank you for being here and part of it. 

Let me start off, as I suggested, with some opening comments. 

As I said, this is a field hearing of the Senate Small Business 

Committee. As I took over the chairmanship of that committee in 

this Congress, the first thing I wanted to do was bring the committee to the real world, including Louisiana. So we’re here to hear 

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from all of you and also to talk about how small businesses are 

supporting America’s energy renaissance. 

We’re going to focus on just that. There’s a lot going on in Southwest Louisiana in particular as a result of capital investments 

being made in the region. And we’re also going to try to identify 

ways that small businesses are contributing and capitalizing on 

these developments. 

You know, throughout a really slow economic recovery since the 

Great Recession, one strong point of all of the recovery has been 

energy jobs, oil and gas jobs and related jobs. It’s estimated that 

nearly 1 million Americans work directly in the oil and gas industry. A total of 10 million jobs are associated in that industry. 

And were it not for those jobs, all about American energy, we’d 

still be in a technical recession now as a nation. So if you back that 

out of the picture, we’d still be in a recession. 

Of course, here in Louisiana, we’re a big player in all of that, and 

that’s all to the good. It’s estimated that Louisiana will receive 

roughly $80 billion in new and expanding development in the next 

few years. Our witnesses in a little bit will talk about some of that 

great economic activity. With that comes really good-paying jobs 

and opportunities stimulating our economy and quality of life. 

Right now, our workforce is about 2.3 million working adults. 

Over 1 million of these do not have a college degree or post-secondary credential. Another 600,000 don’t have a high school diploma. So part of our challenge in taking advantage of this growth 

is getting people trained up, Louisianans trained up to directly participate in this economic growth. 

Beyond the workforce challenges, I’m concerned about an overzealous Federal Government regulatory environment, particularly 

EPA. That’s the biggest thing that could put the brakes on a lot 

of this positive activity, if EPA continues to overshoot the mark in 

terms of overly zealous regulation in some of their new regulations 

and standards that could shut down some of this activity. 

Fundamentally, what businesses need to thrive is a strong, restrained regulatory system that doesn’t impede growth, and certainly that’s what I aim to support at the Federal level while I’m 

still there. 

We have four great witnesses to talk about our topic, how small 

businesses are supporting America’s energy renaissance. I’m going 

to introduce them in a few minutes when we get to their testimony. 

Now to our witnesses and the official Small Business Committee 

field hearing. 

We have four great witnesses who are going to talk about our 

topic today, how small businesses are supporting America’s energy 

renaissance. And during the program, if possible, we’re going to 

have our slides rotate. We’re going to have some slides that are relevant to this topic rotate on the two screens behind me in just a 

minute. 

Let me introduce our four witnesses, and then they’ll each speak 

in the order I’ve introduced them. 

First, Joey Jarreau is the owner of Southside Machine Works. 

That was established in 1978 to service local industries on the Gulf 

Coast. It specializes in industrial machinery, welding, coated fabrication, metalizing, and more. Right now, because of the energy 

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activity in the area, Southside Machine Works in Lake Charles operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, as busy as they can 

be. 

Next will be Bryan Galley. He’s the owner of Bryan Galley Builders, a small building and contracting business located in Lake 

Charles. He established this business in 1995 and has worked to 

build homes for families in Southwest Louisiana ever since. 

Next we’ll hear from Dr. Neil Aspinwall, who served as the 

Chancellor at Southwest Louisiana Technical Community College 

since 2012. During his 27 years in education, Neil has served in a 

wide variety of leadership roles, most recently as the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services with the University System of Georgia at Waycross College. Dr. Aspinwall holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education, a Master’s and Specialist’s degree in 

School Administration Supervision, and a Doctorate in Educational 

Administration. 

And fourth and finally, but certainly not least, is Patricia 

Outtrim, Vice President of Governmental and Regulatory Affairs at 

Cheniere Energy. In this role, Patricia is responsible for all government and regulatory affairs while also overseeing the environmental, health and safety groups. She has over 26 years’ experience in project management, including site selection, development, 

hazard risk assessment, and code compliance. Prior to joining 

Cheniere, she was President of Project Technical Liaison Associates 

and assisted in the site development permitting expansion or reauthorization of seven of the LNG import terminals currently operating in the U.S. 

Thanks to all of you for being here today to offer your insight, 

and we’ll go in the order that I introduced you all. 

[The prepared statement of Chairman Vitter follows:] 

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STATEMENT OF JOEY JARREAU, OWNER, SOUTHSIDE 

MACHINE WORKS 

Mr. JARREAU. Good afternoon. My name is Joey Jarreau. On behalf of my business partners and our employees, I’d like to thank 

you for inviting us to speak today. 

Southside Machine Works, Inc. was established by our founder, 

Kenneth Guillory, in 1977. The company consisted of the owner 

and one other employee. The machine shop was opened with the 

idea of supporting the oil field and petrochemical industry in the 

Lake area. As the industries in the Lake area expanded, so did 

Southside Machine. In 1984, a full-service fabrication shop was 

added to our existing facility. Today our company, which began as 

a two-man show, employs 73 full-time workers. 

Over 50 percent of our workforce has been with us for over five 

years, with 40 percent having been employed more than 10. Many 

of our employees started with us as their first job and have grown 

into career machinists and welders. Last year alone, we were able 

to add 13 full-time positions. All of these employees receive an attractive salary and benefits package, including health insurance 

with 100 percent of their premiums paid by our company. 

One of our greatest difficulties has been trying to find enough of 

these young people interested in learning and developing a trade. 

For some time, schools have been focused more on college preparation instead of job skills training. We have started to see some 

signs this trend may be reversing as more and more college graduates seem to struggle to find work. 

Another area of concern as a small business has been the constant uncertainty of the tax code. In a business our size, it is difficult to plan asset acquisition when tax laws are frequently left to 

expire, only to be readdressed at the end of the calendar year. The 

Section 179 deduction in particular has been a significant benefit 

to our company as we have continually reinvested in an attempt 

to grow our organization. Our ability to plan ahead is hindered by 

these uncertainties. 

We are appreciative of programs like the Domestic Production 

Activities Deduction that allows some tax relief for manufacturing 

done in the United States. There are also state incentive programs 

that recognize the importance of manufacturing in overall economic 

development. While thankful for programs such as these, given the 

option, we would forego these special-treatment items in favor of a 

lower and more simplified tax structure for all businesses. 

We are strong believers that regulation is important to the safety 

of our facilities, the health of our environment, and the overall 

good of our society. However, government regulation often seems 

slow, constantly changing, and difficult to decipher. It is as if many 

of these regulations are generated in a vacuum by people that do 

not have to live under the regulations and therefore do not always 

have the ability to foresee the unintended consequences of their efforts. 

We are proud members of the Southwest Louisiana business 

community. We take great pride in the service we provide to our 

industry partners and our ability to transition within the marketplace. From our early days of oilfield services, to our work with energy-producing companies, to the latest endeavors into the liquefied 

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natural gas arena, we have believed in order to succeed and grow 

our company we must evolve. As the energy industry continues to 

change, we believe it is adaptable small businesses like ours that 

will ultimately walk side by side with the large energy-producing 

companies in an effort to bring America to greater energy independence. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Jarreau follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Joey. 

Next we’ll hear from Bryan Galley, owner of Bryan Galley Builders. 

STATEMENT OF BRYAN GALLEY, OWNER, BRYAN GALLEY 

BUILDERS, INC. 

Mr. GALLEY. Good afternoon, and thank you for the invitation to 

speak on this important topic. My name is Bryan Galley, and I am 

the owner of Bryan Galley Builders, a small construction business 

specializing in residential building. I am a graduate of McNeese, 

and my company has been operating since 1990. I’ve served as a 

member on our local and state homebuilders associations and as 

past president of our local board. I am honored to have this opportunity to address the committee today as a small business owner, 

a stakeholder in our local housing market, and a proud lifelong 

resident of Calcasieu Parish. In the next few minutes, I hope to 

convey to you some of the challenges my and other small businesses face, particularly in the housing industry. I’ll offer some 

broad suggestions as to how stakeholders in the community can 

help small businesses meet the challenge and propel our economy 

forward. 

While my business does not work directly with our local energy 

sector, it is tied to the regional surge in population and growth 

stemming in part from the energy sector’s development. The size 

of my construction operation is reflective of the industry in our region, which is comprised mostly of small business builders. My employees and others in the industry are particularly sensitive to the 

pressures and opportunities brought on by the recent and expected 

investments in our region. 

The nature of the construction industry is such that the businesses must be flexible and adapt to the demands of the market 

as they come and go. For example, the structure of my business 

has changed since Hurricane Rita from a roughly 30-person payroll 

to a group of about 10 core employees who coordinate our work 

through a variety of subcontractors. It seemed that shortly after we 

emerged from the post-storm rebuilding process and recovered from 

the housing bubble bursting in 2008, energy sector investments 

brought sharp demands to our industry. As is the case for so many 

small businesses in the area, my goal is to help meet these demands and seize the opportunity to profit from them. However, I 

am cautious and I seek to do that in a way that is sustainable in 

the long-term both for my business and for our region as a whole. 

As the Lake Charles area sees property values increasing, businesses like mine must work with smaller spaces and be more creative with design. Often this requires an even greater focus on environmental concerns such as erosion, energy efficiency, and other 

areas subject to government regulation. This allows us to build 

with an eye toward the region’s vulnerability to storms and flood 

zones, etc. While this is incredibly important, it also drives up the 

costs for local builders and increases the need for coordination with 

our permitting offices and police juries. Higher costs, combined 

with time pressure to supply the housing in demand, makes the 

Lake Charles construction industry a challenging sector to serve 

well and profitably. 

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Another major obstacle to success in my industry is the lack of 

skilled workers in the area available to complete construction 

projects. As I mentioned before, my company operates primarily by 

coordinating subcontractors, and workers in nearly every skill set 

within the construction industry—carpentry, masonry, framing, 

painting, etc.—are all increasingly hard to come by. When you do 

find a crew that is experienced and consistent in their work product, you are competing with numerous other building projects for 

their time and focus. This causes hang-ups and inefficiencies in our 

construction schedules. 

Further, the high demand and low supply of trade workers in our 

industry puts pressure on subcontractors to utilize undocumented 

workforce and risk illegality to be able to meet the production demands of our industry. This shadow of the law is a reality and a 

burden on our local businessmen. 

I’m going to try to move forward a little quick. I’m a little long 

in this. 

While comprehensive immigration reform may not be a possibility in the short-term, I would like to see our government set up 

programs to address the issue in the present. We must respond to 

the reality that undocumented workers are both contributing to our 

economy and also straining our taxpayers’ infrastructure without 

necessarily supporting it through their own payroll tax payments. 

Of course, this is only a tangential issue and a symptom of the 

larger problem, our lack of skilled workforce, as Mr. Aspinwall 

from SOWELA and Mr. Jarreau from Southside have discussed or 

will discuss. Our society has given higher status and praise to college graduates, but our region really has a pressing need for trade 

workers with specific blue-collar skill sets. We should give recognition to those skilled workers who have excelled in their trades and 

made our community’s economic development possible. We should 

hold them up as examples to be followed. 

I would like to see our government officials and community leaders set up further incentives for young people to seize on the opportunity to make a good living in trades in our community. 

Real quick, because I think this is very important to the building 

sector, in addition to manpower, our local housing industry needs 

appropriate financial investment to meet the demands of our growing population. I am a professional contractor, but I have also 

made personal investments in residential developments. I can tell 

you it’s a lengthy lag time from when I invest funds until we are 

able to reap profit from that investment. Small business owners 

with relatively high tax burdens are often hesitant to truly invest 

further. This could become a problem as our area’s housing needs 

increase. Government officials should anticipate this need and prevent a deficit in housing by implementing programs that give incentives, whether through tax breaks or other support, for those 

who invest in the residential and commercial building community. 

Finally, as a small businessman and a Calcasieu resident, I 

would ask our government officials and community leaders to address the issue of energy sector development with an appropriate 

dose of caution and healthy skepticism. I am as proud and excited 

as everyone else to see our economy grow and prosper, but I also 

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ture. I recognize that tying our local economy to the oil and gas sectors ties us even more closely to the global markets. This makes 

us very vulnerable to market changes far outside our control. 

We have already seen this in Sasol’s management decision to 

postpone certain project development in response to the recent 

plunge in oil prices. We must proceed with the goal of harnessing 

the economic opportunity of the energy sector, but also nourish and 

diversify our economy in other areas alongside it. 

I hope my layman’s perspective is helpful today as we move forward with this discussion, and I welcome your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Galley follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thanks very much, Bryan. I appreciate it. 

Next we’ll hear from Dr. Neil Aspinwall with SOWELA. 

STATEMENT OF NEIL ASPINWALL, CHANCELLOR, SOWELA 

TECHNICAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

Dr. ASPINWALL. Thank you, Senator Vitter, for giving me the opportunity to speak. It may seem out of place for the chancellor of 

a technical community college to be testifying at a hearing about 

how small businesses are supporting America’s energy renaissance. 

However, I consider SOWELA Technical Community College to not 

only be an institution of higher learning but also a small business 

enterprise. Because of $80-plus billion in planned industrial expansions in the petrochemical and LNG/GTL energy sector in Southwest Louisiana, SOWELA has been given the opportunity and responsibility to provide the training programs and services needed 

to produce the workforce necessary to help construct these massive 

industrial expansions. 

According to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, the number 

of annual completers required to fill the occupations of highest 

need for the energy sector expansion in the region are construction 

crafts field, 9,360 jobs; industrial production, 4,955 jobs; and welding, 4,810 jobs. 

Since 2012, SOWELA has begun to design, create, implement, 

and/or expand training programs requested by industry to help 

them meet the demands of the burgeoning energy sector expansions. Programs focusing on skill crafts such as pipefitting, millwright, welding, insulators, scaffolding, concrete forming, machining, sheet metal, electrician, lab analysis, and non-destructive testing have been added to the instructional program options at the 

College. Enrollment in high-demand programs directly related to 

the energy sector such as Process Technology and Industrial Instrumentation have literally doubled in enrollment in the past couple of years. 

Furthermore, due to industry demands and to place students into 

the energy workforce quicker, SOWELA had to be entrepreneurial 

and create a compressed PTech program to provide the opportunity 

for students to earn an Associate of Applied Science degree in just 

16 weeks. The first FastTrack PTech class contained 18 students, 

two of which had Associate’s degrees, 12 who held Bachelor’s degrees, two who held Master’s degrees, and one who had already 

earned a Doctorate degree. So as you can see, these energy sector 

jobs are highly sought-after positions that have and will continue 

to attract individuals to the region for better employment opportunities. 

SOWELA is concentrating on the energy sector workforce needs 

of the regional economy. However, according to the ‘‘Energy Sector 

Jobs to 2030: A Global Analysis,’’ published by the Institute for 

Sustainable Futures in 2009, the 2020 global energy sector is expected to employ an estimated 10.5 million workers. By 2030, global sector energy jobs are expected to grow by an additional 800,000 

workers, totaling an estimated 11.3 million employees. 

The energy sector, comprised of small, medium, and large businesses, will experience significant and steady demand for skilled 

workers over the next 15 years on a regional, state, national, and 

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global level. Therefore SOWELA, as one of these small business enterprises, must be prepared with the programs, services, and financial resources necessary to help produce this massive workforce. 

However, meeting the workforce demands of the expanding energy sector is a very daunting task which is going to require strategic efforts on the part of many collaborative partners. SOWELA 

has developed training partnerships with the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union, the secondary school systems in the five-parish region, and the Associated Builders and Contractors. Many of the 

short-term training programs focusing on the craft skills are noncredit, which makes them unavailable for Federal financial aid. 

Since 84 percent of community college students work, and 60 percent work more than 20 hours per week, our students cannot afford 

to quit their jobs and take advantage of skills training programs 

in which no financial aid is available. 

Fortunately, various private industries such as CB&I, Praxair, 

Bechtel, and Capital One have stepped forward to provide scholarships for students seeking entry into these programs. Furthermore, 

one of our strongest partners is the Regional Workforce Investment 

Board who helps certify our training programs and ensure that the 

programs are eligible for Federal, state, and local dollars. The 

Workforce Investment Boards have enabled many individuals to 

gain access to the training programs necessary to enable them to 

take advantage of the employment opportunities available in the 

booming energy sector fields of the region. 

SOWELA is one of the 13 colleges in the Louisiana Community 

and Technical College System, and a major part of the mission at 

each college is workforce development. We have a golden opportunity to shape the future of Louisiana and the nation as a whole 

by producing the workforce needed to ensure that America continues to produce the energy necessary to fuel an economy that will 

provide financial and economic stability, vitality, and prosperity for 

generations to come. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Dr. Aspinwall follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you very much, Dr. Aspinwall. 

And now we’ll wrap up in terms of testimony with Pat Outtrim 

with Cheniere. 

STATEMENT OF PATRICIA OUTTRIM, VICE PRESIDENT OF 

GOVERNMENTAL AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS, CHENIERE 

ENERGY, INC. 

Ms. OUTTRIM. Senator Vitter, thank you for the opportunity to 

make these comments today. I’d like to provide an update on our 

progress at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal under construction in 

Cameron Parish and help the committee better understand that 

our capacity to export natural gas as LNG is supporting new jobs 

and economic growth locally and in Louisiana and across the country. 

I will also discuss the staffing and permitting challenges created 

by these new projects. 

The Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project represents what is likely 

the largest energy infrastructure project in Louisiana and U.S. history. Cheniere is spending $12 billion constructing the first four 

LNG trains. Our investment will rise to $20 billion pending regulatory approvals and a final investment decision for Trains 5 and 

6 at the site. We began construction in August 2012, and at year 

end 2014, Trains 1 and 2 are 81 percent complete, and Trains 3 

and 4 are 54 percent complete. We anticipate producing LNG from 

Train 1 as early as late 2015, this year, with commercial operations 

beginning in 2016. Additional trains at the facility will start service 

about every six to nine months thereafter. 

The scale of construction on the Liquefaction Project is enormous. Approximately $3 billion are being invested in equipment and 

goods made here in the United States for the four LNG trains 

under construction, sourced from 54 manufacturers located in 17 

U.S. states. Each day over 4,000 workers arrive at the Sabine Pass 

site, increasing the population of Cameron Parish by nearly 60 percent. We anticipate spending $2 billion in wages during the course 

of construction on those first four trains. 

Two local businesses that have been favorably impacted by the 

Sabine Pass expansion are Alfred Miller and Bayou Construction. 

Bayou Construction, whose ownership and employees are from the 

Johnson Bayou area, increased their workforce by 30 percent last 

year, and their revenue doubled due to the project. Bayou Construction expects to have similar increases this year, with 40 personnel working at the site. Alfred Miller is a 67-year-old familyowned business located in Lake Charles. The precast panels that 

are made in Lake Charles are part of several of the buildings on 

site. Alfred Miller hired additional construction and engineering 

manpower to service the $30 million in contracts from the Sabine 

Pass expansion. 

A recent study by Loren C. Scott & Associates estimates that 

construction of the plant’s six trains would grow U.S. business 

sales by $46 billion over eight years and would support an average 

of over 30,000 jobs nationwide through 2019. Business sales in the 

Lake Charles region will expand by over $7.3 billion over eight 

years, while an average of 6,391 jobs will be created for Louisiana 

residents through 2019. To put this impact in perspective, there 

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are 14 parishes in Louisiana that employ fewer than 6,391 residents. 

Construction-related business activity in Sabine is expected to generate over $230 million in additional taxes and fees through 

2019, nearly equal to all corporate income tax collections for the 

State of Louisiana in the 2012 fiscal year. 

We anticipate employing 560 workers to operate the six-train 

Sabine Pass facility. By 2019, Sabine Pass plant operations would 

support over 2,750 new jobs in the Lake Charles region, representing a 3 percent jump in Lake Charles employment, and 

would grow regional business sales by nearly $900 million. By 

2019, 7,500 new jobs would be created in the State of Louisiana, 

and nearly $2.9 billion in economic impacts for the state. 

The project represents one of the many examples of how the U.S. 

energy renaissance is generating new economic and employment 

opportunities across the country. Many of the new jobs created by 

the energy boom require specialized training for skills in the craft 

trades, such as welding and pipefitting, training that does not necessarily fit the four-year college model. Building these skills 

through training our youth and veterans will require cooperation 

and outside-the-box thinking among industry and community 

stakeholders. Cheniere is evaluating ways to help address these 

challenges and prepare our workforce for the new job opportunities 

of tomorrow. 

For America to take full advantage of its growing energy resources, we also need regulatory certainty for the new infrastructure required to gather, process, and transport supplies to market. 

With respect to LNG, the U.S. has in place a robust regulatory 

process to evaluate the safety, environmental, and community impacts of LNG projects. The Department of Energy has authority to 

issue a license to export or import natural gas, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is the lead Federal agency that coordinates all Federal and state agencies during the NEPA review process, as directed under Section 313 of the Energy Policy Act. 

The FERC review begins with a minimum six-month pre-filing 

process, and then public meetings are held, and detailed engineering and environmental analyses are packaged in 13 resource reports that make up the completed application. An additional 12 to 

30 months are required by FERC to review the application and to 

complete an environmental assessment or an environmental impact 

statement. 

There are approximately 40 permits and consultations required 

in total before FERC can provide authorization to commence construction. These application review times have trended toward the 

longer timeframe. FERC, in particular, is manpower constrained as 

their reviews of natural gas and power projects include several sectors experiencing significant growth, including natural gas pipelines, LNG, power transmission, and hydroelectric facilities. 

The NEPA analysis conducted by FERC is a rigorous evaluation 

that ensures the safety of the public and environment, but it’s a 

time-intensive and expensive process. The regulatory review for an 

LNG project can take up to three years, and a sponsor must spend 

up to $100 million to receive all necessary permits. Furthermore, 

as more LNG project applications are filed at FERC and those apDeShaun on LAP51NQ082 with DISTILLER

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proved go into construction, more demands are being placed on 

FERC staff to review projects and oversee construction. 

The regulatory process must keep pace with the growth America 

is experiencing in its oil and gas fields to avoid wasting a golden 

economic and strategic opportunity for the country. Section 313 of 

the EPAct provides that FERC ensure expeditious completion of 

LNG project reviews and provides for timelines. Delays in these 

projects can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Therefore, it is important that these timelines be adhered to by state and Federal 

agencies. At the same time, it is important for Congress to ensure 

that these agencies are provided the resources necessary to complete reviews of pending LNG and infrastructure projects. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Outtrim follows:] 

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Chairman VITTER. Thank you, Pat. 

Thanks to all four of you for your testimony. 

By the way, this entire record will be shared with the Small 

Business Committee folks in Washington as part of our ongoing 

discussions. 

Let’s get to discussion coming out of your testimony. I want to 

start with Mr. Galley and Mr. Jarreau. You all are the small business folks here, right? This is the Small Business Committee discussion, so I want to start with you. One of these slides up here talks about $63 billion of new activity 

in this part of the state. What has that felt like in terms of your 

businesses in the last few years? What has it done to your specific 

businesses? Number one. And number two, what are some of the 

biggest impediments to you being fully able to take advantage of 

that in terms of business and job growth? 

Mr. GALLEY. Well, in my business, what we’ve seen over the past 

several years is people, of course, building more homes and trying 

to put in more places to build homes. But what we’ve also seen is 

folks that are interested in doing multi-family building, more duplexes, more density building that have visited with me particularly as far as doing those projects. As you go forth, where do you 

build them? Who will let you build them in that spot? How are you 

going to finance them? And once you work through all of that, then 

we all have time tables. As I said in my opening testimony, we 

really need help with this problem with blue-collar workers, as I 

said. There’s something to be said for a great carpenter or a great 

mason. It’s very proud work. It’s very hard work. 

But I think we have to start at an early level, whether it’s in 

high school. I think we really, really need to look at some of our 

vocational classes and make sure that those true champions that 

are there, that want to come, that come from generations of that 

type of work, we should make them understand that it’s proud 

work and it’s good work. 

Chairman VITTER. Bryan, let me back up. Just in terms of your 

activity, if you compared, say, a couple of years ago to next year 

or the year after, your projections, what sort of increase do you expect to see? 

Mr. GALLEY. I see it could easily be just twofold. 

Chairman VITTER. A 100 percent increase for you. And what I’m 

hearing is one of the biggest barriers you have is just getting the 

right skilled folks. 

Mr. GALLEY. We’re working as hard as we can and we can’t keep 

up right now, you know? So what do you do? 

Chairman VITTER. Joey, you want to add to that? 

Mr. JARREAU. Sure. Echoing what he said, we sort of feel like— 

no offense, but by the time we get to our community college level, 

it’s almost too late, you know? We feel like the bulk of the people 

that funnel into our business, they’re starting families at 20 years 

old. 

You did mention it’s hard for them to basically stop working to 

go back to school, you know? I know a lot of the guys we have that 

have been there for an extended period of time, a lot of the skills 

that they got were straight out of high school. They got them in 

high school. They came out kind of with that mindset and that 

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ability to walk into a job with some of those skills already, and I 

think that’s even more important today. 

As far as the actual expansion in the Lake area, other than we’ve 

noticed our industry partners kind of—I don’t want to say panic, 

but going into that mode of, okay, let’s solidify our contracts with 

our vendors to be sure that as this expansion comes on and things 

get busier, that we have those set people ready to take care of our 

business still. 

So we’ve seen a lot of that. We don’t do a lot of new construction 

type work. Typically what we do is more repair and kind of afterthe-fact stuff. So really, until they kind of get everything here and 

start putting it together and realize, okay, that doesn’t fit, that 

doesn’t work, that’s kind of where we get more involved. So we 

definitely see it expanding our business. 

We have been working—really started a couple of years ago adding more facility, adding more staff, with the idea that that’s where 

we’re headed. The biggest impediments for us have been finding 

those good employees, and then also, like I mentioned, when the 

tax debate is happening at the first of every year, it seems like you 

always hear, well, Section 179 is not that important to businesses. 

But to a business our size, it really is. It makes a significant impact, because without that Section 179, every project costs me 30 

percent more in taxes. 

So that’s been to us probably the biggest headache, is kind of sitting around trying to figure out, okay, can we afford to do a little 

bit more depending on what that tax structure is going to be, and 

how in that context starting over is not a way to—we couldn’t run 

our business that way. 

Chairman VITTER. So again, back up a little bit. In terms of your 

business, because of the nature of it, have you seen significant 

growth yet, or is that a little down the line? 

Mr. JARREAU. I think it’s more down the line. I mean, we’ve seen 

some significant growth in our business really in the last five 

years. 

Chairman VITTER. What sort of percentage growth over the last 

five years? 

Mr. JARREAU. I’d say we’ve been probably around 5 percent 

growth per year, actually. And it’s kind of a managed growth for 

us, which is good. We try to keep it where we can handle our customers the way they deserve and we like to handle them. 

But I don’t know that I can tie it directly—like I said, other than 

a couple of our big partners kind of saying, okay, we want to lock 

you into doing a little bit more work for us so that we know you’re 

there when we’re going to need you later down the road, I don’t 

think any of the new construction necessarily has definitely—you 

know, I can attribute it to that. 

Chairman VITTER. But you would see an impact a little further 

down the line? 

Mr. JARREAU. Oh, there’s no doubt. 

Chairman VITTER. When that stuff is under way? 

Mr. JARREAU. Absolutely. 

Chairman VITTER. More fully under way. 

Mr. JARREAU. Absolutely. Like I said, we do more of a service industry. We’re more of a service business, kind of an after-the-fact 

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kind of thing. We’re not really construction. So obviously, all of our 

business is involved in going into local facilities and working with 

them on repairs, maintenance, that type of stuff. And obviously, 

with more facilities, there would be a definite impact to that business. 

Chairman VITTER. In terms of impediments, I’m hearing again a 

skilled workforce, but also certainty in terms of the tax environment, the regulatory environment, etc. 

Mr. JARREAU. Absolutely. I mean, just this week, two different 

things came across. One was the capitalization vs. repair regulations, and there was another one I wrote down but didn’t bring 

with me. But it seems like there’s constantly regulation coming out, 

and then they’re like, oh, wait, that doesn’t work. So we back it up, 

and we’re constantly spending time either with consultants that 

have been there trying to help us figure out how to manage the 

newest regulations that are coming out that three weeks later are 

gone, and they’re replacing it with something else. It just seems 

like for a small business that doesn’t have a full-time staff, sitting 

around just to decipher what the government is doing this week, 

it’s tough. 

Chairman VITTER. Absolutely. 

Well, on that note, Pat, let me turn to you. I think I heard right, 

but I want to emphasize it for everybody to focus on. Just on the 

pure permitting regulatory side, before you all started really putting a shovel in the ground, you had to spend $100 million, right? 

Ms. OUTTRIM. That’s correct, sir. 

Chairman VITTER. $100 million. I know it’s a big project. I know 

you’re a big entity. But still, a tenth of a billion dollars for pieces 

of paper before you really started productive activity. 

Ms. OUTTRIM. That’s before you make final investment decisions. 

So it’s a $100 million gamble, because you don’t know if you’re 

going to get those permits. 

Chairman VITTER. So, describe how much of your company’s time 

and energy is on the pure government regulatory side and what a 

burden, essentially, that is. 

Ms. OUTTRIM. I would say—I mean, for my group, it’s 100 percent because it’s all permitting, and that’s not a huge group in our 

company. But I would say it’s probably between 10 percent and 20 

percent of the work that’s done. In the early stages, as a development company, of course, it was more. It was a greater percentage 

than that. But it is all-encompassing, and it’s a three-year process 

that starts fairly slowly, and you have to develop all of your engineering work in order to be able to provide that to the agencies. 

The state agencies have done a very good job and worked very 

diligently to try to move the timelines along. The Federal agencies 

are working diligently as well, but they seem to get further and 

further behind, and so it’s taking longer and longer. And you’re 

spending, for every day you delay a permit, you’re spending millions of dollars because you’ve got engineers that are working, 

you’ve got a lot of momentum behind that whole process. And so 

there’s a lot of money that goes out the door on a daily basis, and 

it’s a day-to-day delay on actually putting LNG in a ship and being 

able to sell something. 

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Chairman VITTER. Now, at the Federal level, I assume part of 

the problem in terms of delays and complications is you really have 

two different processes, FERC and DOE, and it’s never exactly 

clear who goes first, how it works, how they intersect. Is that fair 

to say? 

Ms. OUTTRIM. Well, until DOE kind of defined their process last 

year, it was definitely ‘‘Who’s on First’’ and who goes first. They 

have now defined that process, that FERC will complete their 

NEPA analysis, and DOE participates in that, as EPAct 2005 requires, so that’s defined. And then DOE is going to issue their permit after FERC finishes their permit. 

The problem is that both of those permits could happen simultaneously and probably shave a couple of months off the permitting 

process. But DOE wants FERC to finish completely first and then 

they will issue their permit. So there are definitely efficiencies that 

could be had with a little bit different look at what the actual permitting requirements are. 

Chairman VITTER. Let me just make the comment, based on that, $100 million for permits, for pieces of paper before you’re putting 

a shovel in the ground, imagine how that translates—now, I know 

it’s not the same level of burden, but imagine what that means to 

a truly small business like Mr. Jarreau’s or Mr. Galley’s. It’s not 

going to be $100 million, but that same level of burden can absolutely kill, bankrupt a truly small business. 

Ms. OUTTRIM. Well, and we are—Cheniere, I like to say we’re a 

small business doing big things. I mean, we went from a 200-person firm to a 600-person firm. So although we’re larger than some 

smaller businesses, we’re still not a huge business. So it is a huge 

burden, and it is a very big burden for smaller businesses. Ten or 

20 percent of their workforce, that’s just not productive and not income-producing. 

Chairman VITTER. Dr. Aspinwall, we’ve been talking a lot about 

skilled labor and the need to grow that and develop that. As you 

know, there is an effort to start at an earlier stage than you, and 

I agree with this effort. In my opinion, we really need to even the 

playing field and right the balance at the high school level, or even 

before, in terms of making sure kids understand all sorts of opportunities. Yes, four-year colleges, but also skills training. 

I think over the last 30 years we’ve sent out this implicit message in America that if you’re not getting a college degree, you’re 

second class, and that’s just wrong. It’s nowhere more wrong than 

in Southwest Louisiana where, if you have the right skill sets, you 

can be a 21-year-old right out of high school making $55,000 a 

year, in four years making $95,000. 

One effort at the high school level to rebalance that is this program called Jump Start, to have more exposure to vocation and 

skills training at the high school level. How would you broadly rate 

how that’s going, how quickly, how fully it’s going at the high 

school level? 

Dr. ASPINWALL. I think the new Jump Start program is off kind 

of to a slow start, and I can tell you some progress that has been 

made probably in the last couple of months, and that’s how our 

state community college system, meeting with the state superintendent and meeting with the superintendents at the local school 

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level, and what we’re trying to do is work out an MOU so those 

Jump Start courses and their new diploma track system, they can 

utilize more of the community college system to begin doing that 

training. 

And the comments you made about for the past 30 years I think 

we have gotten away from the skilled craftsman, we have emphasized too much what I call a four-year college degree. I’m a product 

of the university system, and I have two sons. By the time both of 

them were 10 or 11 years old, they knew they had to go to college. 

But the message I was sending to them was that you have to go 

get a four-year degree. 

So I think we have to redefine what we mean when we say college. College naturally is a four-year degree, but it also is an Associate’s, a diploma, a certificate, it’s a continuing education, anything that’s going to get you those workforce skills that’s going to 

allow you to get into the workforce and get a meaningful job and 

begin to pay taxes and contribute to the economy. 

So, yes, I think we’re beginning to turn the corner, so to speak, 

and reemphasize some of those technical skills trainings, and when 

you come to a community technical college, you are coming to college. The parents have to understand that, that you are getting a 

college education even if it’s less than a four-year degree, and it’s 

going to lead to a good career and a good job. 

Chairman VITTER. Absolutely. 

I’ll go back to our two true, true small business guys, Mr. 

Jarreau and Mr. Galley. Right now, for your skilled workforce, 

what are your best sources to go to? Where do you find the most 

effectively? 

Mr. GALLEY. Well, like I said, we went from a 30-hand payroll 

to using a lot of subcontractors. So we try to recruit the best subcontractors. We do a lot of high-end construction, so we need people 

who are sensitive to quality. So word of mouth, been with us a long 

time. They tend to train a lot of their employees at the work site, 

from the helpers and laborers to trying to learn the craft, and they 

do a good job of that, but the numbers aren’t as much as we need. 

So that’s how we do it, you know? We try to grow them right 

there on the job site if we can, if that makes sense. 

Chairman VITTER. Joey, what about you all? 

Mr. JARREAU. I’d say a lot of the same things. We actually get 

a lot of guys from the surrounding area, not even just Lake 

Charles. The Kinder area seems big for us. We do a lot of wordof-mouth recruiting. We do a lot of training on-site. Sometimes our 

employee list looks like a family tree because you’ll have this one’s 

cousin and brother, because they’re people who will have a good, 

hard work ethic that will come in. 

Just one little guy who came to work for us four years ago, he came to work for us making $15 an hour a couple of years out of 

high school. Today he’s making $34 an hour, but he came in with 

that mindset and that ability to get that. I don’t know if he got it 

in high school or it’s just the family tree, but typically the guys 

that are with us, we’re kind of bringing them in sometimes as floor 

sweepers, starting there and kind of building them up. Sometimes 

they come in with a little bit of skills and we work with them. But 

most of it, we’re pretty much training in-house our long-term guys. 

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Mr. GALLEY. Can I add to that real quick? 

Chairman VITTER. Sure. 

Mr. GALLEY. I think another thing that’s really—I know it’s not 

scientific, but I think just work ethic. If we can get them there on 

time and keep them there, by God, that’s half the battle. I don’t 

know where you teach that, but that’s cowboy logic. Just get there 

and we’ll get it done. 

Chairman VITTER. I don’t know what it is now, but it used to be 

sort of basic life skills and values. 

Mr. GALLEY. Well, I think it’s the world we live in. When I was 

18 years old, by God, you had to go to work, okay? Today, for some 

reason, they seem to have everything they need not working. So I 

don’t know where it’s coming from, but I don’t have that answer. 

Chairman VITTER. I know at Cheniere you all make a determined effort to make clear the opportunities you have for Southwest Louisiana business, small business typically. How do you do 

that, and are the Cheniere opportunities and other companies with 

a similar effort, how do small businesses best engage with you or 

look into those opportunities? 

Ms. OUTTRIM. Well, there are two ways of doing that. During 

construction, Bechtel is our primary contractor. So they would go 

to the Bechtel Web site and register through the Bechtel Web site 

for opportunities to work with Bechtel and Bechtel subcontracts. 

Then we have our Web site available as well, and as we go into 

operations, we will use a lot of subcontracts—maintenance, everything from yard work to fence maintenance and all kinds of different subcontractors. So that’s the best way to get hold of us. 

Chairman VITTER. Good, good. 

Dr. Aspinwall, I know, as you were saying in your testimony, 

you’ll have a lot of pretty new regional projects based specifically 

on developments here, what’s going on on the ground, new employers, new projects. Why don’t you mention some of those and what 

you have found works best in terms of making sure you connect directly to what’s going on in the real world and what employers actually need? 

Dr. ASPINWALL. Well, one of the things we tie our success and 

our existence on is maintaining contact with the business and industry world. For instance, Joey here, Joey helped recently, in the 

last year, develop a new mill program and machinist program for 

us, because that’s one of those programs we didn’t have. But industry was saying you need to develop a program like this that you 

can produce these workers. So if we keep those close ties with business and industry and have those on our advisory committee, then 

the expertise that they have to tell us this is what you’re doing 

right, this is what you’re doing wrong, and this is what you need 

to change, so we have that direct tie to the business and industry. 

We also look at, with this great expansion, we’re not producing 

fast enough. So we’ve had to compress a number of our programs 

and make sure that the students can come in on a shorter period 

of time and get out and get into the workforce. 

But one of the problems we’ve run into is that we know that this 

energy expansion in our area, it seems to one day move very fast 

and the next day it slows down. So what we have to be conscious 

of is not to over-produce, because one of the things that will kill 

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us is—for instance, we can’t train enough welders. We’ve expanded 

our welding program about four times. But many or some of the 

companies that we’re contracting with, when it gets time for their 

students to enter the workforce, the workforce has slowed down 

and there are no jobs for them. There will be eventually. 

So we have to regulate our program, because if we train them 

and they leave us as an institution of higher learning and there are 

no jobs, it kills our program. So there are a number of things we 

have to watch out for. 

Chairman VITTER. Go ahead. 

Mr. JARREAU. We were talking about SOWELA, and one of the 

greatest things that I think has happened there in the last couple 

of years is it used to be they kind of had a program and they 

taught somebody a skill or what they thought was the skill that 

they needed, and then they kind of came out and it didn’t always 

match up. I think what Dr. Aspinwall has done that’s been amazing is they have actually got machinist supervisors and plans in 

place to come in and say, okay, you help us develop a program and 

let us know what you need, and I think that’s going to pay big rewards in the end. 

Chairman VITTER. Absolutely. 

And, Dr. Aspinwall, a related issue that you also mentioned in 

your testimony, Federal programs—for instance, student loans, Pell 

Grant—those are really mostly designed for four-year colleges. 

What are some of the top changes we need to make so that they’re 

more broadly designed for any post-secondary education, including 

your programs, including union programs or ABC skills training 

programs, etc.? 

Dr. ASPINWALL. Well, you know, the experimental Pell program 

that was in existence, that’s one of those programs that looks at 

shorter—say, 600-contact-hour programs that allow students to receive Federal financial aid from some of those, because a number 

of our non-credit compressed programs are maybe six, eight, seven 

months in length. So if we can have some experimental Pell money 

and allow these students to access that money, one of the things 

that has been done in the last year, and we appreciate your help, 

is the ability to benefit. That option has come back for students 

who now can use or have access to Federal money. 

But it is a big hindrance to a number of our students who, most 

of them work, trying to get the finances necessary to come and take 

advantage of these maybe short-term programs to allow them to 

move into a higher-income bracket. 

Chairman VITTER. And I’ve actually heard of instances where a 

particular skills training program is artificially lengthened just because of the Federal requirement for students to be able to get that 

Pell Grant or other financial aid. Well, that’s crazy, if they can actually be getting it done more quickly and getting into a job. 

Okay. Any closing thoughts or comments from anyone? Then 

we’re going to start wrapping up. 

No one? 

[No response.] 

Chairman VITTER. Well, thanks to all of you for being here today. 

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39 

sion about energy jobs and taking advantage of those opportunities 

and how small business is a big part of that. 

Everybody, let’s give them a round of applause. 

[Applause.] 

Chairman VITTER. Thank you. 

As I said, this record and transcript will be shared with the full 

committee and others in the Senate. I appreciate you all being part 

of it. 

Let me repeat the apology of Congressman Boustany. He was 

going to be here today and be a full part of this discussion. Unfortunately, he got trapped out of state by weather and travel backups. So he sends his regrets. 

Thanks to all of you for coming out. 

Also, when I’m stuck in Washington, I do telephone town halls 

and contact you by phone. I’ll continue to do that to benefit from 

your ideas and comments and questions. So please follow up. 

In addition, in the meantime, don’t just wait for the next event. 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me and my staff, including here in 

Lake Charles, with any comments or questions about what we need 

to be focused on. All of my contact information is on a handout I 

think you have, blue column on the left, and please use all of that 

contact information on a regular basis. 

With that, we’re adjourned. 

Thanks very much for being here today. 

[Whereupon, at 2:00 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.] 

Æ 

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