My name is Ray Lamonica and I’m a Client Business Manager here at FootBridge. We are an Energy Industry focused staffing firm and we help our clients in identifying specialized professionals in the engineering, construction management, and project control space.
I really enjoy the people that I work with, and I know that sounds like a canned answer, but it’s true! I still work with some people that I talked to in my first month here at FootBridge, clients that have hired from us over the years, and candidates that we’ve placed. It’s kind of great to see some of the candidates that we place end up becoming clients at some point, and we’re able to help them as well. But I would definitely say the relationships and that I’ve been able to build over the past 10 years.
Most of my clients reach out to me because they’ve identified a personnel need. It could be that they might have lost an individual and you need to backfill them quickly or it could be that they’ve gained additional scope on their project and they need to add additional people.
In both of those cases, they usually need people quickly and we’re able to source and recruit and present them with specialized talent, give them some options and we’re able to onboard them very quickly. When solving a problem for a client, we typically start by doing an intake call. I want to get as much info as I can about the problem that they have, the type of individual that they need, and I want to get an idea of what their budget is. We try to work within our clients’ budget, first and foremost, to help them with their issues.
We have a large utility industry client that has been putting together a Solar program and they’ve had some difficulty identifying engineers and project managers with the solar industry skill set. We cast a few of our recruiters with only talking to Solar industry professionals for the past month or so, and we were able to build up enough interest and build up a little network to get some referrals to a few individuals that we were able to then place.
The Hummer was once known as a gas-guzzling car and discontinued in 2010, was just reintroduced as having zero emissions. It’s not the only electric car on the road. Still, it did make us wonder about power consumption and the impact on grids moving forward. Will we need to build more electrical power plants to keep up with demand? Not that we have anything against EVs or the Hummer, although it will cost you around 100K to purchase. But with almost half the cars on the road in 2050 expected to be electric, we thought it worthwhile to check it out. Here’s what we found.
First, a little information about carbon emissions: according to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, transportation became the largest greenhouse gas source in 2016. But that’s not to say it’s at its all-time highest. In 2005 carbon emissions peaked, and from 1990 to 2016 grew by 21.5 percent. According to NASA, even though carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas, too much of it and other greenhouse gases ((methane, nitrous oxide, and (hydrofluorocarbonsCFCs)) can trap thermal energy increasing the earth’s temperature, leading to global warming. It isn’t just vehicles that produce these carbon emissions, either. But the burning of any naturally occurring fossil fuel such as coal, oil, and natural gas. According to Energy.gov, these fossil fuels formed when prehistoric plants and animals died and were buried under rock layers. Without them, there’d be no electricity or industry.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) account for 28 percent of total emissions. As such, “labels on today’s cars also include ratings on greenhouse gas and smog-forming pollutants. EPA provides online resources, such as the Green Vehicle Guide and the joint EPA-DOE website fueleconomy.gov,” for those who are interested in learning more.
While emissions do not come from a tailpipe in EVs, they are emitted through the source of electricity at the power plant. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), California has banned the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. Hawaii and Washington aren’t far behind. However, doing so could boost power demand by up to 25 percent. Which, in turn, could lead to a shortage in supply. Much work will need to be done on the grid to handle the demand. For instance, Maine would have to produce 55 percent more electricity if every car in the state went to electricity.
Whether EVs will lead to overall lower carbon emissions, one study reports that electric cars emit overall lower carbon emissions even as the electricity generation still relies on fossil fuels, except for countries where electricity is still reliant on coal. Countries like Sweeden with more renewable energy sources and nuclear power stations fare better with lifetime emissions are more than 70 percent lower than petroleum. And as we mentioned, with more than half the cars on the road predicted to be electric by 2050, it’s an increase that would boost national power consumption by 38 percent. This is excellent, but in the meantime, it will be interesting to see how the nation’s power grids will adapt and what demand will look like during peak charging time frames like after work.
As always, hiring top talent is essential to your business’s success, and our team is here to help you find the right people with unmatched expertise.
Let’s collaborate today to fill your open positions. We are ready to source your next top performer for continued business success.
