With approximately 1,000 new people adding to the population of Texas each day, the Texas Aggregates & Concrete Association (TACA) is taking the initiative to ensure that their member companies will be able to sustain the inevitable huge demand for aggregates, concrete, and cement.
In order to handle sharply rising construction materials demand spikes in the 2021 infrastructure boom, not to mention new housing, schools, and businesses for the growing Texas workforce, the TACA is looking to a more subtle natural resource. TACA is focusing on the human resources available, and one of the most essential is leadership ability for the aggregate and concrete sectors.
Wisely looking to the future, the Texas Aggregates and Concrete Association has been taking these steps to foster a new generation of leaders to handle the industry pressures of unprecedented population growth. TACA’s Emerging Leadership Academy was rolled out in 2014 to uphold the highest industry standards in one of the state’s most regulated industries.
And as we’ve learned in 2020, identifying industry leaders in the aggregate and concrete sectors didn’t come a moment too soon, as the exodus to Texas gathers even more steam for 2021.
The Corporate Exodus to Texas
Failing “green energy” policies and overreaching environmental regulations and red tape that many companies perceive as contributing to business-hostile environments in many states, particularly California, have triggered a mass exodus to Texas.
Corporate tech giants ranging from Oracle and Hewlett Packard to original Silicon Valley stalwarts such as Tesla and TBC led by Elon Musk are all rushing to the wide-open welcoming arms of the Lone Star state.
Musk has been the most prominent corporate refugee to flee California, for shall we say, the “less green pastures” of Texas. Musk’s tunnel-building company TBC, The Boring Company is taking initiatives to move within 20 miles of the new $1.1 billion Tesla mega-factory near Austin, Texas. Musk is also consolidating his domestic supply chain for critical rare earth elements essential to electric vehicle production with efficient mine-to-magnet development.
But Musk and many other industrial leaders aren’t planning on any new innovations or developments in 2021 California, where forced over-reliance on minimally efficient wind and solar power energy results in statewide brownouts and production disruptions for any facility so unfortunate as to find itself trying to operate at full capacity on cloudy windless days.
At Resource Erectors we’ve been tracking the industrial exodus from California for years now, and much of that migration is the unintentional consequence of “The Green Rush to Less-than-reliable Energy Sources” in the “green tarnished” Golden State. Ironically, California is one of the most traditional energy-rich regions in the nation. But regulatory environmental bias against LNG, nuclear power, and coal, in favor of wind, solar, and hydroelectric that provides only small fractions of the incredible power grid demand from the population of 40 million leaves these rich natural resources untapped.
But that’s certainly not the case in Texas where solar power is harvested responsibly and natural resources also abound. The Texas concrete and aggregate sectors are ready to build for the boom, and they’ll be doing it with responsible best practices to protect the health of Texas residents and the environment.
Aggregate Production Operations: APOs and Growing Demand For Lone Star State Infrastructure
While Texas welcomes more industry and the larger workforce that comes with it, APO operations aren’t getting a free pass when it comes to protecting the environment, even in an unprecedented population and business boom.
“The TACA Emerging Leaders Academy prepares organizations to handle compliance responsibilities under more than 15 local, state and federal regulatory agencies overseeing different aspects of the aggregate, concrete, cement and other associated industries in Texas.”
The primary agency for regulating and permitting in the concrete and aggregate sector is the EPA delegated TECQ, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The TECQ implements the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and other federal environmental programs, but APOs in Texas are also subject to a host of other regulatory agencies including:
- The federal EPA
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
- Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Mine Safety & Health Administration (MSHA)
- Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA)
- Texas Department of Transportation
- Texas Department of State Health Services
- Texas Parks & Wildlife
TACA members and company leaders prepared by the Emerging Leaders Academy follow best practices that often permit them to not only meet but exceed this vast array of regulatory requirements. That critical working knowledge, with accurate self-reporting, can streamline the “robust permitting process” for APOs including concrete batch plants, aggregate operations, and cement producers. Compliance to TECQ is vital for APOs new to the Texas aggregate and concrete industry landscape, since the TECQ has “broad enforcement authority”, with the ability to levy $25,000 fines, per day, per violation.
Texas Leadership Teams Up for Industry in 2021 and Beyond
Economic development is a top priority in Texas and Governor Greg Abbott is proud of his state’s successful investments in corporate end-user facilities,and diverse infrastructure projects including roads, pipelines, utilities, railroads, airports, bridges, and tunnels. Says the Lone Star governor;
“Thanks to our premier workforce, Texas has been ranked #1 on Site Selection’s Global Groundwork Index,” said Governor Abbott. “Our state-of-the-art infrastructure and thriving business climate has kept Texas the top state for economic prosperity.”
With the economic future looking bright for Texas industry, the TACA teamed up with the Texas Mining and Reclamation Association (TMRA) in 2020 to ensure that the state’s most valuable human resource supply chain can be sustained in the mining, aggregates, and concrete sectors throughout the 2021 boom and beyond.
These two Texas industry associations are “teaching teachers” about the importance of available mineral resources in Texas including aggregates, uranium, and lignite in their jointly operated Industrial Minerals Workshop.
The teachers attend week-long sessions, tour local mining operations, and learn about career opportunities in the mining industry for their students. They can then pass on the facts that counteract against the prevailing media bias that mining and aggregate industries must confront these days, along with real-world problem-solving techniques to address earth science issues with critical thinking, practical solutions, and leadership that will be vital to the future of Texas and the world at large.
About Resource Erectors
At Resource Erectors we bring decades of specialized recruitment experience to the mining, aggregates, and concrete sectors and more. We maintain ongoing relationships with the top professional candidates who have the experience and skills your company is seeking when it’s time to take your dream team to the next level. Over 80% of Resource Erectors’ placed professionals in mining, engineering, civil construction, industrial minerals, construction materials, tunneling, precious metals, and more are still contributing to the success of their organizations 5 years later. That lets your organization eliminate the high cost of vacancies in essential positions while avoiding the costs and disruptions of a bad hire.
If you’re a highly qualified professional who is ready to make a strategic move up the career ladder, Resource Erectors can get you through the door to the industry-leading companies with exciting opportunities in the US, North America, and Australia, so please don’t hesitate to contact us today.
