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Texas Lobbyist Political News: Rick Perry Attends Caterpillar Facility Opening

The following is a digest of the contents of a video available at Governor Perry’s website. The Texas Lobby Group is making this digest available as a public service for other Texas lobbyists, government consultants, Texas business persons, and other interested parties.

Last Thursday, August 23rd, Governor Rick Perry traveled out to the Texas Gulf to speak at the grand opening of the new Caterpillar Manufacturing Facility in Victoria. He offered much congratulations, towards individuals and a move forwards. “Today’s announcement is the product of a lot of hard work, from our friend’s at Caterpillar, officials at the local level, untold numbers of Texans, and Caterpillar operations all over the state of Texas. (They) have demonstrated time and time again that Texas and the Texas work ethic is at the core of that decision making process.” Victoria is expecting a lot of some growth, and hundreds of jobs at the new facility. As a fairly small town of under 100,000, Victoria is an eager recipient for housing Caterpillar’s latest business move.

Caterpillar, INC is a versatile American owned business which designs, produces, and sells mainly machinery and engines. Caterpillar is also the world’s largest manufacturer of construction equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and turbines. This plant will please many on the more “Green” side of thing, as it also strives towards meeting all Environmental Protection Agency guidelines and has donated millions to “The Nature Conservatory.” Caterpillar is building a “Hydraulic Excavator Plant” in Victoria, specifically. For the company, Victoria was an ideal candidate to branch outwards because of it’s proximity to their main supply base, and multiple ports.

Employment rates have been high as of the recession, and a large facility with so many available jobs is a welcome addition to Victoria, Texas. “Congratulations to Victoria, officially becoming a home to this facility, and expanding Caterpillar’s presence in Texas. Congrats to everyone who either is or will make this facility a site and a home for employment, to the families that will be impacted in a powerful and positive way.”

On what this means for the company, vice president Gary Stampanato says this; “Caterpillar is committed to maintaining its global leadership position in the excavator industry, and this new facility in Texas will play an important role in our long-term plans to provide customers in every region of the world with the products and solutions they need to help them with their businesses.” They claim to hold a positive business practice, and to foresee improvement on their services due to this opening plant.