Harrisburg, PA – The Shapiro Administration and the
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) today announced a new registered apprenticeship program to train workers to plug oil and gas wells, helping to protect the environment and public health while providing workers with in-demand skills and family-sustaining wages. The new program will be run out of the United Mine Workers of America Career Centers, Inc.’s (UMWACC) Ruff Creek Training Center in Greene County where
Governor Josh Shapiro visited earlier this month to highlight bipartisan investments in workforce development.
UMWACC’s Gas Well Capping Technician program – the first-ever registered apprenticeship program for UMWA – provides workers with the knowledge to plug abandoned and orphaned wells that have the potential to cause health, safety, or environmental concerns and to mitigate harmful emissions and provide an economic boost to rural Appalachian communities transitioning away from fossil fuel economies.
“We have a huge abandoned well problem in Pennsylvania, and we need qualified and well-trained people to plug them. There are more than 350,000 orphaned and abandoned wells across our Commonwealth – and they make up nearly 8% of our total methane emissions.” said Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley. “Sooner or later, every orphaned well is going to be a threat to the environment and public health, and we need people with the skills and training to plug the wells and restore the surrounding landscape. In addition to removing the threat that old wells pose, some active wells could find new life as geothermal wells, capturing buried heat for clean energy.”
The Gas Well Capping Technician program is officially registered with the Apprenticeship and Training Office (ATO), housed within the Department of Labor & Industry (L&I), and will train workers on the following topics: safety, well capping techniques, cement properties and skills, and land remediation.
“The Shapiro Administration is committed to addressing the needs of in-demand industries and preparing workers with the skills needed to be successful in our workforce,” said L&I Secretary Nancy A. Walker. “The Registered Apprenticeship Occupation of Well Capping Technicians program offers a solution to both of those goals, by providing real career opportunities for individuals dedicated to the environmental and public health of our Commonwealth.”
“This is a positive step toward addressing unemployment in Appalachia's coal mining communities,” said UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts. “The program will not only help stop leaking gas and oil wells but also provide workers with family-sustaining wages. Capping abandoned and orphaned wells is expected to take decades.”
“We are very excited about this program,” said Clemmy Allen, Executive Director of the UMWA Career Centers, Inc., a nonprofit 501c3 company. “The Well Capping Technician is one of the in-demand occupations in which dislocated coal miners and their families, as well as all those residing in rural mining communities of Appalachia, can train for without relocating. The partnership with the UMWA International union ensures workers will be paid family sustaining wages with benefits in good union jobs. We are proud to sponsor this program.”
Pennsylvania has a long history of energy development, including the first commercial oil well in 1859. In 2022 the U.S. Department of the Interior awarded Pennsylvania an initial grant of $25 million to plug orphaned and abandoned gas wells. DEP has plugged more than 250 wells since
Governor Josh Shapiro took office, more than have been plugged over the last nine years combined. More information about the orphan and abandoned well plugging program is on the DEP website:
Rewriting Pennsylvania's Legacy (pa.gov).
Since day one, the Shapiro Administration has been focused on creating real opportunities for hardworking people to obtain good-paying jobs, with an emphasis on valuing skills-based hiring — where every career path is treated with the same level of respect, regardless of whether or not it requires a college degree.
L&I has supported the creation of 53 registered apprenticeship programs in Pennsylvania since Governor Shapiro took office, with 15,665 registered apprentices currently active. L&I’s Apprenticeship and Training Office (ATO) currently supports 884 unduplicated registered apprenticeship program sponsors and 1,561 occupation-specific programs across the Commonwealth. Additionally, there are 121 registered pre-apprenticeship programs and 1,213 pre-apprentices currently active.
Beyond approving new and unique registered apprenticeship programs, the Administration has been hard at work securing millions of dollars for workforce development in the 2024-25 bipartisan budget, including a $30 million increase for vo-tech and Career and Technical Education (CTE) programming and equipment and a first-time $2 million investment for nursing apprenticeships. These investments in career and technical training and vo-tech education, registered apprenticeship programs, and on-the-job training build on the critical investments made last year. Taken together, Governor Shapiro and a bipartisan group of legislators have increased funding for workforce development by $61 million since the Governor has been in office — a more than 50 percent increase.
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