Bill of industry health

Industrial Engineer, Sep 2009

POLICIES MAY CREATE 2.5 MILLION JOBS IN ENERGY MANUFACTURING

Leaders of the industrialized nations can't talk enough about energy and the economy and how each of their government bodies must address the globe's needs. Business, labor and clean energy decision makers are having their own discussions and quickly disseminating information to the public about their own concerns. Recently, Sen. Sherrod Brown (DOhio) was joined by Apollo Alliance, a coalition to build the green manufacturing job force domestically, in the effort to introduce the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Technology (IMPACT) Act of 2009.

The bill aims to put America's ailing manufacturing sector on the road to recovery by facilitating the development of domestic clean energy manufacturing and production.

"The American Clean Energy and Security Act, passed by the House June 26, puts a cap on carbon and establishes a Renewable Energy Standard that will generate unprecedented demand for clean energy," explained Sam Haswell, communications director of Apollo Alliance. "We need to be able to meet that demand at home with American workers making the components and systems of the new clean energy economy."

And according to Haswell, 70 percent of America's clean energy systems are produced abroad, including half of the country's existing wind turbines and all transformers for the electrical grid. Apollo's Green Manufacturing Action Plan (GreenMAP), which triggered Brown's proposed bill, seeks to reverse these trends. The primary goal of GreenMAP is to provide capital for small and mid-sized manufacturers to become more energy efficient and to retool factories and retrain workers to produce clean energy technologies. Solar panel components, wind turbine components, advanced batteries, energy-efficient windows and electrical grid transformers are all elements of the energy supply portfolio.

Haswell added: "Though the entire nation will benefit from a renewed focus on clean energy development, the states with the most to gain are the ones that already have a manufacturing base and are implementing policies that will attract clean energy manufacturers. For example, Ohio has built an interlocking network of research universities, state agencies, public and private economic development organizations and business incubators - all designed to encourage entrepreneurs and existing companies to jump into the growing market for clean energy components, products and systems."