Lake Charles will host the 19th World LNG & Gas Series: Americas LNG & Gas Summit & Exhibition from Nov. 1 through 3.
The summit and exhibition will offer key information about the LNG and gas industry, including market analyses from key importing regions; notes on the capacity of the U.S. and Canada to fill the gaps in their natural gas inventory; and the core themes of the industry, which include the shifting contours of LNG project finance and contracting, innovations in technical processes and engineering, the availability of feed gas; and, finally, the regulatory landscape in which new infrastructure must be built.
Organizers feel that the summit will be the site of the most important conversations for the energy industry in terms of global energy security, shifting supply and demand dynamics, and energy transition.
The exhibition will feature more than 100 regional and international companies that can engage directly with LNG and gas projects. The exhibition gives participants an opportunity to network and meet the international energy community — especially through the Americas LNG & Gas Awards and the drinks served at the welcoming stage.
Speakers at this year’s event will include U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy; Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser; Mayor Nic Hunter; Octavio Simoes, president and CEO of Tellurian; Paul Varello, executive chairman of Commonwealth LNG; Tina Faraca, the president of U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines and TC Energy; Phillip May, president and CEO of Entergy Louisiana; Kane McIntosh, project manager and principal vice president of Bechtel; and Najla Jamoussi, director of market fundamentals at Global LNG and Cheniere Energy, among many other speakers.
Exhibitors will include the American Petroleum Institute, Bechtel Energy, Commonwealth LNG, Cheniere Marketing, Sempra Infrastructure, Tellurian Services, Visit Lake Charles and more than 50 other organizations.
For more information, visit worldlngamericas.com.
Partners for the event include the City of Lake Charles; Visit Lake Charles; the Port of Lake Charles; the Cameron Parish Port, Harbor and Terminal District; the Southwest Louisiana Economic Development Alliance and the police juries of Calcasieu and Cameron parishes.
Mandatory Summer School
State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley says he can improve Louisiana’s literacy rates by making Louisiana students stay in school for 30 additional hours during the summer.
If you have any children in school at any level between Grades 1 and 12, why don’t you — just for fun — put down the magazine for a moment and go ask your kids how they feel about that?
Now that you’re back, I’ll proceed by informing you that Brumley has submitted a proposal to the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) asking them to consider what 225 Magazine calls “mandatory summer school.” According to this proposed rule, elementary students who aren’t reading at their grade level by the end of the school year will spend 30 hours of their summer sitting in straight-backed school chairs. That has to beat riding a bike.
Brumley said, “A child that’s not reading on grade level by the end of third grade and certainly by the end of fourth grade is at a much greater risk to be a dropout.”
You’ll be amazed to learn that some educational experts and some parents disagree with Brumley. But in a recent press conference, he said, “I’m not going to back down.” Well, of course he won’t. What kind of politician would back down for the sake of a bunch of children?
Taylor Shreve, a teacher at Lafayette Renaissance Charter High School, told 225 Magazine, “based on the articles [proposed by Brumley] it’s going to be [students] sitting in front of the computer with a teacher teaching from a script. Those kids will not retain longer than two weeks; it is not going to help them long term. It’s not going to close the gap.”
If the proposal is approved, mandatory summer school will start in 2023. Since the decision is not being made by a group of experts on education but, rather, by a school board, anything could happen.
Surely nine months of sitting at a desk all day is enough for a six-year-old. Let the poor child be a child for three months. Again, ask your six-year-old whether he or she agrees.
Short-Term CDL Course At Sowela
Looking for a job that pays well and always has openings? Then you should know that Sowela Technical Community College’s Office of Workforce Solutions will soon be offering a short-term CDL training course.
The cost is $5,950. Scholarships and financial assistance are available. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a limited number of slots.
The Class A [truck-driving] license training program is a comprehensive 245-hour program with the education taking place in both the classroom and behind the wheel. The training covers Louisiana Department of Transportation (DOT) rules and regulations; the pre-trip inspection; backing pad skills and on-the-road skills.
The seven-week class starts on Monday, Nov. 21. Students meet Monday through Friday from 7 am to 4 pm.
The final skills test drivers must pass to receive a state license is administered by state-approved examiners. Those who complete the test and obtain their state license are qualified to drive tractor trailers, dump trucks, tow trucks, delivery trucks, tanker trucks and flatbed trucks.
For more information and to register, visit sowela.edu/training, call 337-421-6560 or email workforce@sowela.edu.
Two Candidates: No More, No Less
I was brought up short by an Oct. 10 KPLC headline: “Two candidates running for Westlake Chief of Police.” The first question that popped into my head was, “how many candidates usually run for an office?” Then, I immediately thought, “I bet if I asked a bookmaker, he’d answer two.”
Anyway, I wound up reading the whole article. The two candidates in question are current Chief Chris Wilrye and Michael Perez.
Perez was formerly a field training instructor with the feds. He told KPLC, “I was a firearm instructor doing active threats. I went to school and got certified to teach these types of courses.” He was also in the sheriff’s office for eight years.
Perez made some pretty bold statements for a candidate. Here’s what I mean: “the department lacks leadership right now, there is a big gap between the chief and patrol, and I need someone that is going to work beside me as a deputy chief so I can move on and start managing and doing other things in the department for patrol operations and training.”
But Wilrye, who primarily said that hiring more officers has been his priority, got off the most attention-getting remark in the interview by making the remarkable statement that “there are only two officers on shift right now.”
BASF And LSU Create ‘Soft Sensors’
BASF engineers turned to LSU to develop AI (artificial intelligence) to create “soft sensors.” Unlike physical sensors, which can melt or stop working in extreme operating conditions, soft sensors are entirely driven by data.
“Instead of waiting 12 hours for a lab sample or for the next shift to take a new sample, LSU can help us find a way to predict what is happening inside our units, just based on data and AI,” said one researcher.
“Unsupervised machine learning allows us to capture the intrinsic behavior of processes and discover things we weren’t necessarily even looking for,” said LSU Cain Endowed Chair and Professor of Chemical Engineering José Romagnoli.
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