Houses at bargain prices are slowing down. Im ali velshi, and this is real money. Appear hydraulic fracturing or fracking creates controversy, but creates an abundance of natural gas in the United States. That has caused u. S. Prices to plummet. Today oil trades at about 22 times the price of natural gas. In 2006 it was only about seven times the price, and that caught the eye of the global industry. Energy Companies Like sassal in south africa and sempra in california are looking to cash in on cheap energy prices. That means new jobs and developments. To get an idea of how big the boom is you have to head to western indiana, where technology will be used in a complex changing the region. We have the story. Reporter at a pipefitters yard in western louisiana, matt brown is learning a new trade. The baton rouge native is one of hundreds who see opportunity in this remote bayou parish, where an industrial revival is under way. Hes enrolled in a technical stool for pipe fitters. What brought me here was the works, two years ago. I came to get a job, i have a career path im on, and came to school to get certified and make more money. Reporter cheap natural gas brought on by a boom is reshaping towns like these in louisiana. The opportunities are about to get a lot bigger. A few miles down the road a South AfricanPetrochemical Company called sassal is making a large Foreign Investment in u. S. History. In these empty grass fields, sassal is building a massive complex expected to bring 7,000 construction and 1200 highskill industry jobs over the next five years. For each of the 1200 jobs that will be created because of our project in southwest louisiana, we estimate that six or seven other jobs will be created in the community to support those jobs whether its Health Care Workers or restaurant workers. That is starting to reshape the region. Theres not enough apartment complexes in lake charles, so what is happening in lake charles is the same thing that is happening in north dakota. They are building temporary crew camps. Reporter dozens of the camps are cropping up to handle a sas ol project that is so big it will close 26 public roads and cut into the uorate, which Unemployment Rate which hovers around 5 . Now that energy dropped in the United States, its opened up a world of opportunities that couldnt have existed otherwise. Sassals first plant will convert natural gas into diesel fuel. A Technology Advanced by nazi scientists. The second will produce etha leap, a raw chemical used in plastics and paint. Together you have about 21 billion in spending, which is by far the largest Capital Investment in the history of our state, if it takes place, and one of the largest single investments in the history of the county. Over the next 5 years 30 companies are expected to for 90 billion into dozens of petrochemical projects. Keep in mind louisianas g. D. P. Is about 250 billion. Billion in capital expansion, we would have thought it was a great year. State. So why louisiana . This is where theres a lot of natural gas. We have pipe lines in place. There are enough miles of pipelines alone to circle the globe 4. 5 times. Easy access sweetened the deal. Louisiana is offering a 10year exemption on property taxes, this growth is uprooting residents. The new complex will be guilt on more than 3,000 acres of lands, cutting directly through the land of mossville. Im walking through the front quart of a resident who sold the property to sassel. Its been flattened to make way for a complex. Sassel is not the only game in town. Theres 66 energy or pet petrochemical plants. You cant help but wonder if this will be a more familiar scene as Americas Energy renaissance takes hold. Routh is among those leaving. His home is in the path of the new promote. Sassel is paying him 213,000 to move out. I had enough. Ill take what i can get and get out of here. We go down south. They are telling you youre getting a good deal,man. Yeah, right. Today 14 different plants and refineries surround mossville and many residents say they have felt the affects. Blood samples collected from 28 residents in 1997 and 2001 showed elevated levels of diochlin, a highly toxic pollutant that is naturally occurring, but a biproduct of industrial waste. Neighbour. We do a tremendous amount of work to predict and model the emissions of hired carr bones that come out of the correspondence that come out of the carbons that come out of the plant. There should be no Significant Health impacts of anything close to the plant. Old pipe fitters like rufus are doubtful, young ones are thankful for the work. It makes me feel good, knowing im going somewhere with my life. The money that sassal and others poor into louisiana will flow, so long as america keeps fracking and Natural Gas Prices stay low. In the end a draw for Foreign EnergyCompanies Investing in louisiana and other sports in the United States boils down to maths and the favourable economics of doing business here. Russell gold is an Energy Reporter at the wall street journal and an author of the boom how fracking ignited the American Revolution and changed the world. Louisiana is an example of the impact the energy boom can have. Cheap natural gas in particularly, and as much natural gas as you can shake a stick at, decades worth. That was the missing ingredient for the industrialization. 1015 years ago the plants were being dismantled and moved to trina dad where you had cheap natural gas. Now they are coming back because you have the labour, and an encouraging local and state government. You have the pipeline, the infrastructure, which you didnt have. What you didnt have was chief energy. That is now back. Russell, one of the things said in the story is as long as theres cheap natural gas, there are people in the industry saying all the ingredients are here except the price of natural gas is too low. If it stays too low, youll see some of the money leaving. What happens to the price of natural gas. Should it go higher, if it does, does it imperil projects like this . I have been hearing that for two years. We need the press of natural gas to go up, or well stop drilling. They are not stopping drilling. We are producing more natural gas. Im skeptical. A higher price of natural gas would help companies drilling the wells and fracking. Its more profits for them. At the same time they realise that they dont want to go back to the days of 10 natural gas, because theyll pull the plug on their project. They are trying to find a happy medium between what gas Consumers Want and producers want. We are having a little dance right now. You lock at the fracking boom in north dakota, the infrastructure didnt exist. Because there was so much to frack, they built it. Louisiana has the infrastructure, it has the access to the gulf of mexico and has the pipe lines. Is this boom the thing that will take place anywhere where natural gas exists tore does louisiana or does louisiana areas. No this has to happen in a place like louisiana. Who david had said, the second plant is etho lean, what we make plastic out of. In louisiana, from mississippi all the way to corpus kristi texas, you have one of the worlds if not the Worlds Largest consep tryings of petrochemical plants. You concentration of petrochemical plants. You have to build a plant because its next door. The neighbour can build the product. Shell has been talking about building a plant in pittsburgh. Its not going anywhere, because once you make the ethylene you have to ship it to the gulf coast. Theres an argument where you hear about all the things that happen with respect to natural gas or fracking. Some people say it causes earthquakes. Mossville is one of the most polluted places. When you go no places where the Economic Situation is such that the benefit to fracking outweighs the noise, its one thing, but there are other places more populated where people have more of a voice. Are we worried that theyll speak up and say this is great health . We are seeing that. Theres a lot of places around the country saying we love the lowcost gas, we like the fact that electricity is lower, we dont want in near us. Its the nimby, and in louisiana and texas, accustomed to the oil and gas industry, and node the jobs from need the jobs if it, they are more accepting. You make an excellent point. We dont know what the Environmental Impact of this gas to liquid plant or other facilities that are being discussed. Louisiana has a poor track record with emissions and the environment. This is another generation coming in. This could be 90 billion over the next few years in a billion. Hard to say no to that. It is. Good to talk to you russell, russell gold a wall street journal Energy Reporter and the author of boom. Next, its an multibill job project affecting ships, strains and trucks. Continues. It probably will not surprise anyone to learn that the u. S. Imports more than china than anywhere else in the world. America imported 440 billion in goods electronics, toys, shoes up 331 since 2001. Here is what is interesting for years most of the goods were shipped to the west coast and trucked east. Panama has a multi billion plan to shake up the shipping world. It is expanding the panama canal, making way for the bigger ships and u. S. Ports are scrambling to keep up. We have our report. Reporter is the 6. 8 billion and counting the panama canal expansion is an attempt to reshape Global Shipping routes. A century ago president Teddy Roosevelt was instrumental in opening the canal. A short cut between the atlantic and Pacific Ocean s. Today it is too narrow, among them the ships used to move goods from asia to the United States. 18 is shipped through the canal. Panama hopes to win more of that business with super sized lots. Joe biden joined the panamanian president for a look at the work in progress. The arrival of the new ships presents an opportunity for countries to transport goods more cheaply than ever before. Its a challenge for all of us modernize. Khelleded to open in 2016. The new canal scheduled to open in 2016. It will be open to bigger ships, 25 longer and 50 wider than the ships using them today. Theyll carry up to three times the count capacity of containers. There has been an arms race in the shipping industry. Shipping lines are investing in bigger ships. We have to keep investing in bigger infrastructure to deal with the crate flows. More than 70 of container traffic is shipped to the west coast. Goods heading east are offloaded for transport by truck or train. Most of the shipments go to the east coast via the suez canal. Some manufacturers will be able to save time and funny travelling to east coast ports like new york and savannah, georgia. Hoping o attract the ships, port cities up and down the coast ever spending billions. In new york city, construction workers are raising the bridge to accommodate taller ships. In miami, port officials are building better trucking routes, including a 4lane trucking tunnel and engineers plan to dig a deeper and larger harbour, extending eight miles into the atlantic. What promises to be a windfall for the east spells competition for the west. The panama is a threat, combined with investments in the american southeast ports. Its a competitive world in the port industry. Some predict pacific ports could lose 1020 of its shipments. To combat the threats, the port of seattle invested 1. 2 billion through infrastructure in 2012. Five million is ear marked for cranes and upgrades. Los angeles, the biggest port, is spending 1. 3 billion to protect market dominance. The suspending on both coasts may be a gamble. Theres reason for optimism. With 1. 5 million containers moving through the port, shipments are at a high. The fiercest competition sparked by the expansion of the panama canal will be between east coast ports, battling to steal market share. Among the biggest winners is you, the American Consumer. They are among the conclusions of a transportation and infrastructure special of the. He calls this a true feelgood story. For the American Consumer and businesses, theres upside. Additional goods that reduce transportation costs means cheaper agriculture. Electronics in the stores, and cheaper input products for business, they can export those advanced Industrial Products to other markets across the world. Its a bin win. The real question is between the ports, is it a zerosome games. How often is that different versus Global Economic forces and trade demands that may flat line or grow at a certain rate. Different to what the panama canals upgrade that they are experiencing on the current infrastructure they have. Its great business for the panama cannes am, and remarkable canal, and remarkable saving for theships. We look at the Northwest Passage through the arctic. Anything to get a ship to port faster has an effect the the bigger point is you see the big uptick if we see an increase in global trade. Its how much the u. S. Can network with the world. We see over the last 30plus years its grown faster than g. D. P. Its a smart investment for the panay mannians. In the short run, five years, therell be may scores, elected officials, country officials who may be surprised at the lack of results for the new investments. That doesnt mean the Economic Community will not be in a good shape. In miami, or jacksonville its a smart investment. Some things are not changing. The big effort we are looking for is for americans to be trading, producing and consuming more. This is infrastructure, its hard to put a return on investment. You see the upgrades. You mention savannah. Miami, and the bayonne bridge in new york. But the fact is what is who is really going to get the benefit from this early. Norfolk has a report accommodating super ships. Theres a few ports on the east coast that we expected to be open, when the canal opens, extended to 2016 due to construction and legal kerfuffle. We have new york, norfolk, miami with their new investment, and baltimore as well. Savannah has been the Fastest Growing port. Jackson and boston are winners. The biggest participation winner can be nimy. They have had great support. You mentioned in the opening video, interim enhancements on the dock side and the land side to smooth traffic in the community. And connect maimy to the rest of the country versus competitors. The single biggest winner is along the gulf coast. Soya bean producers and other product may ship more goods south. Again, feeding no the asian appetites, instead of being imported this is an exports. You mentioned where a container comes off the ship and becomes a truck or railcar. Lets talk about trucking and rail. Therell be people worried they are not going to ship goods from the west coast to the east coast. Will rail prices become cheaper . Yes, theres great coverage about how rail terms, the large class oneforms may look to class one firms, may look to lower the rates to carry more traffic across what is called the American Land bridge. Its important to note that theres a concerted effort by freight rail to hold on to the longer distance business. The longer they haul it, the more money they make. Rail will be involved, including the east coast, the longer travels have something for them. Too much attention has been solely focussed on the coast coast to lose business. If you are not watching this or following the story, is this going to be transparent to consumers. Different . Well probably not notice. The best hope is a silent wind, 0. 05, 0. 10 off a product in the grocery store, making up these numbers. Within reasons, consumer electronics. It will be unspoken. That will be the name of the game. Theres a cliche that freight doesnt vote, you dont notice it until theres a problem. Lets say the west coast strikes, the east coast from previously. In some ways you dont want to know about freight. For business its a big deal, and understanding how smoothly the transactions can be made are massive, and especially for the opportunity for american exporters, having bigger amounts of good, whether it is grains to advance products to the growing middle classes in asia. The panama is a generational investment and well see a generation to see full returns. Theres no question that the American Economy benefits. Its great to point occupant the export opportunities. Specialist. Next Housing Market starting to recover. Investors are going elsewhere j this, is what we do. Al jazeera america. After a brutal winter the Housing Market showed renewed life. The recovery is not as strong as hoped. Especially with Mortgage Rates cheap, and a strengthening job market. New and used home sales are running behind last years pace, we are on the road to recovery, and people, president obama, say Institutional Investors are to thank for that. In the last two years they spent billions buying up hundreds of thousands of distressed Single Family homes and turning them into rentals. Now that the prices are stabilizing. Institutional investors slowed buying. They are going else were. Theres term its caughting home price appreciation to slow down in hot markets. After doubledigit home aprooshz in the last year, is it a bad thing. [ auction call ] reporter this was the scene when dozens of Institutional Investors convened to buy up hundreds of Single Family homes in a single afternoon. Sold subject to receipt of funds. Reporter since 2011 Institutional Investors spent upwards of 50 billion, buying 386 family homes. The home sales have declined. Blackstone, for example, the largest of the Institutional Investors tells real money, its acquisitions are down 70 since last year. Particularly in some of the hottest markets where the Institutional Investors started out. They are pulling out. Reporter there could be a downside for investors pulling back. When properties were sold, when investors stop buying, prices fall. We are seeing home price prooshzs slow down. The question is is that going to be a soft landing or will we see markets. The home price index shows that nationally home values have been appreciating since 2009. In markets like phone. Hit hard by the foreclosure crisis investor purchasing is down 14 from last year when buying was at its peak. Home appreciation values went from 30 last year to 6 in may. 6 home price appreciation is good. The question is how far will that fall as the players pull out even more. Analysts say there are other factors to take into account for the slowing of home aprooshz. Institutional investor interests is one of many factors to the broader Housing Market slow down, which includes higher Mortgage Rates and less affordability. Thats the show for tonight. Coming up next week on real money jobs. The employment picture has been improving, but theres more behind the numbers. We tell you where the jobs are and who is hiring. Thats if for me. Thanks for joining us. [ music ] you cant have it. Im not giving up my father cant take those dreams away from me. Dreaming big ive got to get into at least one of these top schools. Theres no way i cant. 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