The North America’s Building Trade Unions (NABTU) released two reports in July showing a high degree of satisfaction among oil and natural gas construction workers.

Tradespeople working in the sectors consider “projects in oil and natural gas industries to have better wages, benefits, and opportunities than renewables projects,” one of the studies says. “Tradespeople also report that the oil and natural gas industries offer projects with longer durations than those in renewables industries.”

Both union and non-union workers report that oil and natural gas construction jobs are overall better careers than competitor industries offer.

NABTU’s press release highlights their apprenticeship programs which offer workers “the other four-year degree.”

“Through the Apprenticeship system, our oil and gas construction industry training offers four years of learning everything in a skilled trade, and debt-free college credits with a family-sustaining job,” said Sean McGarvey, President of North America’s Building Trades Unions.

The study further states that “energy sector jobs and energy sector construction jobs provide Americans without a college education a vital pathway to middle class careers and living standards.”

While oil and natural gas construction jobs may offer a pathway to upward mobility for under-educated workers, the political climate is throwing the prospects of the industry into question. Several pipeline projects have been halted, faced new roadblocks, or have been canceled recently, including the $8 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Keystone XL pipeline.

“As of late June 2020, at least 11 major projects have reported significant new difficulties, typically citing combinations of pandemic disruption, low prices, and organized opposition,” according to a new study entitled “Gas Bubble 2020” by Global Energy Monitor. It additionally found that in the past year, the “fossil gas industry worldwide has more than doubled the amount of liquefied natural gas terminal capacity under construction.”

That jump has coincided with “low gas prices caused by global oversupply” and decreased demand for fuel due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Faced with these issues, industry leaders such as NABTU’s Sean McGarvey are hoping to keep politics at bay. McGarvey concluded the press release, stating “we hope these studies provide a cautionary note for lawmakers, policymakers and activists, that oil and gas jobs are high-quality jobs, and as we rebuild the economy and transition, we need a plan to rebuild the middle class with family-sustainable wages, training and growth opportunities, and long-term and short-term benefits like the oil and gas construction sectors provide.”