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Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) this week called for the creation of a National Network of Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) and is drafting legislation to accomplish this. The legislation would help establish more next generation manufacturing centers like the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown.

My August post, Ohio 3D-Printing Manufacturing Hub Initiative, I described the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown,

Last week the Obama administration announced a new National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown, Ohio. The Institute will work on promoting new 3D printing technology. 3D printing is a key strategic industry that is changing the way many products are designed and built, and will likely be another battleground as new industries form around it.

(Click through to learn about 3D printing, it’s pretty cool.)

The idea is to develop regional “hubs” that are “centers of excellence” across all sectors of manufacturing. These hubs bring together industry, universities and community colleges, federal agencies – such as the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, and the National Science Foundation – and U.S. state and local governments to accelerate manufacturing innovation.

According to a press release from Sen. Brown these hubs will “bridge the gap between basic research and product development, provide shared assets to help companies—particularly small and medium-size manufacturing enterprises—access cutting-edge capabilities and equipment, and create an environment to educate and train students and workers in advanced manufacturing skills.” (more…)

On December 6, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed a piece of legislation in the Senate that would allow the debt ceiling to be raised. Just a few short hours later, McConnell stood up on the Senate floor and actually filibustered his own legislation, effectively killing the bill that he himself authored.

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

When Americans hear the word “filibuster,” they might picture impassioned, hours-long speeches like Jimmy Stewart’s in that classic scene from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. But when McConnell killed his own bill last week, he only had to threaten to filibuster rather than actually take the floor. As Senator Jeff Merkley said, “It used to be that people wanted to take responsibility for their obstruction.”

Not anymore. Under current Senate rules, it’s staggeringly easy for important legislation to be derailed. Just the threat of a filibuster by a minority of senators can stop a bill in its tracks — and we’ve seen it happen over and over. In 2009, the American Clean Energy and Security Act — which would have represented substantial progress in addressing the climate crisis — died in the Senate under the threat of a filibuster. Over the past six years, almost 400 Senate bills have stalled this way.

Enough is enough. That’s why the Sierra Club has joined a coalition that’s calling for rule changes to help end this obstructionism. Organizations ranging from the Communications Workers of America to the NAACP to Common Cause are all onboard, because we know that if we want to see legislative progress on our nation’s problems — from the fiscal showdown to the climate crisis — we have to fix the Senate.

Mr. Smith fans don’t need to worry. The changes we’re asking for won’t end filibusters but will make sure they’re used as our founders intended. Senators will have just one chance to filibuster — not multiple opportunities to obstruct. Currently, many filibusters happen on motions to bring legislation up for debate — not in the context of actual deliberation on bills. The U.S. Senate is often described as “the world’s greatest deliberative body” — so let’s give the senators a chance to deliberate. (more…)

On the eve of California’s landmark, first ever cap-and-trade auction, voters in three Western states were asked some key questions: Should polluters be held financially accountable for their climate pollution emissions? And if so, how should the resulting funds be spent?

The results of this new poll show significant support for putting a price on carbon pollution, as well as funding clean energy and innovative infrastructure. The poll was made public at Greenbuild 2012 in San Francisco, the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building, and was conducted by Lake Research Partners on behalf of the BlueGreen Alliance, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Ceres, and the U.S. Green Building Council.

According to the poll, 56 percent of voters in Washington, Oregon and California favor a proposal to “reduce climate pollution and invest in clean energy by charging large companies for the pollution they create that contributes to climate change.” Only 20 percent oppose it, while 24 percent are undecided. This is the basic idea behind the cap-and-trade system that California just launched.

Cap-and-trade is a market-based approach that controls carbon dioxide emissions by giving an economic incentive to reduce them. This system sets a limit — or cap — on the amount of carbon that can be emitted, and then sells allowances to those that wish to exceed the cap, which generates revenue for — in this case — the state of California. The revenue from California’s system will be used to spur clean energy growth, creating good jobs making the state more energy efficient and moving it to cleaner, renewable energy. Although cap-and-trade is just starting up in California it has been successful, raising $290 million in the first auction, and it’s clear there is support in Western states for the idea that those creating the pollution should help move America to cleaner energy sources.

Additionally, voters were overwhelmingly in favor of updating America’s innovative infrastructure, with 71 percent in favor of clean fuels, electric vehicles, bus rapid transit and commuter rail. Innovative infrastructure is vital to the U.S. moving forward on cleaner energy sources. Voters clearly understand that without electric vehicle charging stations, electric vehicles won’t be as viable. Additionally, making sure transit options are available is also important in the minds of voters.

Voters said they support these efforts because they believe we have a responsibility for future generations and that investments in clean energy and infrastructure can provide good middle class jobs that won’t be outsourced to other countries.

Looking at this graph from the poll, it’s clear there is tremendous support for clean energy and innovation infrastructure investments.

The clean economy and the infrastructure to power it are going to be at the forefront of economic growth long into our future. Seeing that people recognize that, as well as the economic opportunity growing clean energy and innovative infrastructure will provide, is heartening. Moving America to clean energy is a priority for voters and a necessity to address the growing climate crisis. By putting a price on carbon, we can provide an incentive to companies to cut global warming pollution and raise the funds to invest in cleaner energy, better transit, and jobs that can’t be outsourced.

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David Foster, a former USW District Director, is the Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the clean energy economy. Launched by the United Steelworkers and Sierra Club in 2006, the BlueGreen Alliance now unites 10 major U.S. labor unions and four of America’s largest environmental organizations — with more than 14 million members and supporters — in pursuit of good jobs, a clean environment and a green economy. Visit us at www.bluegreenalliance.org.      

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This has been reposted from The Huffington Post.

That variant on the NRA’s famous slogan came to mind last week with the phenomenal victory mountaintop mining removal opponents and community groups achieved in a court settlement: Patriot Mining, previously one of Appalachia’s biggest mountaintop removal mining companies, not only agreed to end the practice forever, but acknowledged its community and environmental costs.

Patriot Coal has concluded that the continuation or expansion of surface mining, particularly large scale surface mining of the type common in central Appalachia, is not in its long term interests … We believe the proposed settlement will result in a reduction of our environmental footprint.

This settlement is one of the biggest steps yet in the decade’s long struggle to end the devastation of Appalachia by poorly regulated and often illegal mining practices that destroy mountains, fill streambeds, and threaten schools and homes.

It’s wonderful. But it reminds us that problems afflicting the coal industry are the direct result of the historic attitudes of its operators — not actually the resource itself, or the men, women and communities who produce and rely upon it. And Patriot came to its senses only after entering bankruptcy. Not all coal operators are looking at their practices with a fresh eye.

Indeed, in the wake of the election two weeks ago another coal operator. Robert Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, promptly laid off 156 of his workers, promised to lay more off later, and accompanied this decision with a stunning prayer, which equated the election results with the end of the American coal industry and indeed, the end of the idea of America itself:

Dear Lord,The American people have made their choice. They have decided that America must change its course, away from the principals of our Founders. And, away from the idea of individual freedom and individual responsibility. Away from capitalism, economic responsibility, and personal acceptance.

We are a Country in favor of redistribution, national weakness and reduced standard of living and lower and lower levels of personal freedom.

My regret, Lord, is that our young people, including those in my own family, never will know what America was like or might have been. They will pay the price in their reduced standard of living and, most especially, reduced freedom.

The takers outvoted the producers.

Murray made a vague reference “allegations from radical Obama supporters that you know are blatantly false” — an apparent reference to charges that he was blackmailing his employees into supporting Mitt Romney by threatening their jobs in advance of the election — a threat, we should note, that was evidently not an idle one. But Murray made no reference whatsoever to an even bigger financial challenge he is facing; paying the $1.1 million fine he agreed to as the penalty for the death of nine of his workers in the 2007 Crandall Mine disaster in Utah. (more…)

What’s the purpose of our government? No matter who you ask, I doubt that stifling innovative solutions would be part of their answer. Yet that’s exactly what the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seems determined to do. And we have only a couple of days left to help them see the light. This craziness started two years ago, when the FHFA cut the legs out from under a terrific idea for helping homeowners save on their energy bills — property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs. PACE programs make it possible for people to borrow money at low interest rates to fund projects like a home energy-efficiency retrofit or rooftop solar installation and then repay the loan via an annual assessment on their property tax bill, usually over a period of 20 years. The loan is attached to the property, not to the individual homeowner. If you sell your house, the loan stays behind with the new owner. That makes sense, because it’s also the new owner who inherits the lower energy bills that the PACE loan made possible.

For homeowners, a big advantage of a PACE loan is that you can invest in a home improvement that might take 10 or more years to pay for itself — without worrying that you might have to sell your house before you recoup that investment. It’s such a great idea that — even though PACE programs have existed only since 2008 — 27 states have already passed legislation to enable them. Two years ago, however, the FHFA, which oversees the federal mortgage underwriters Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, told them not to buy mortgages with PACE assessments. Their objection was that the PACE loan’s association with the property tax bill would prioritize it ahead of the regular mortgage in the event of a default. That decision was enough to cause the immediate suspension of most residential PACE programs (commercial PACE programs are largely unaffected by the FHFA). (more…)

Although he’s said and done some odd things in his day (“corporations are people”; dogs are luggage), I doubt anyone would argue that Mitt Romney’s completely off his rocker. So why did he just announce his opposition to one of the biggest American success stories of the past decade?

The U.S. wind energy industry not only supports 75,000 jobs across the country but also has emerged as an important energy source. By the end of this year, seven states will get more than 10 percent of their total electricity from wind. Two states, South Dakota and Iowa, currently generate more than 20 percent of their electricity from wind power. On its present track, the wind industry will produce at least 20 percent of the entire country’s electricity by 2030, probably more.

That won’t happen, though, if Romney gets his wish and Congress allows the American Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit (PTC, for short) for wind energy to expire at the end of this year. Without the PTC, the U.S. wind industry will contract — losing as many as 37,000 U.S. jobs in the process.

It does seem crazy to come out in favor of forcing thousands of Americans out of work at a time when jobs and the economy are the top two issues on voters’ minds. In Iowa, where the Republican governor joined the state’s entire congressional delegation in support of extending the PTC, the reaction ranged from stunned disbelief to anguished outrage.

Of course, after a summer of extreme heat, drought, and wildfires (in June, the lower 48 states were 2 degrees warmer than the 20th century average), it seems beyond crazy to put the brakes on wind power, which can help to replace carbon-polluting coal and natural gas power plants. Then again, that particular craziness is officially sanctioned by much of the current Republican leadership, so it’s not quite as surprising that Romney would subscribe as well.

The official rationale for Romney’s opposition to the tax credit is that he doesn’t believe in energy subsidies. Unless, of course, those subsidies are already going to Big Oil. (more…)

Four years ago I picked up a good news/bad news local paper in Duluth.

Good was the major revenue growth for the Port of Duluth — importing wind turbines, in addition exporting taconite iron ore (to places where those wind-turbines are made.) Bad was that instead of the taconite being made into steel for turbines in the U.S. ports the ore freighters pass — Chicago, Gary, Detroit, Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo — it went to China, and the turbines themselves were imported from Europe.

But while I was in Brazil last week some much better news appeared — Brazil this year is importing hundreds of wind turbine blades on freighters from Duluth. Great Plains demand for wind power had grown so much that LM Wind Power had built a turbine blade factory in Grand Forks, N.D., and Duluth was exporting not only taconite, but turbine blades. Now the Grand Forks blades have found an export market — yet another proof that manufacturing follows markets, and that if the U.S. keeps building demand for energy innovation products, we can built a mighty manufacturing economy behind those markets.

That theme brings me to Cleveland this week, for a two day “Making it Here” conference cosponsored by the Blue-Green Alliance and the Great Lakes Wind Network. The topic — reviving American energy manufacturing. The keynote speaker, Lou Schorsch, the CEO of ArcelorMittal Steel’s U.S. operations, reminds the audience of why manufacturing is so important — its jobs pay better, it generates far more innovation than other sectors, it provides a middle class pathway for workers without college degrees, and manufacturing innovation is the key to cutting our energy and material waste and consumption.

And it’s not wages that hold us back: Germany, a high wage country with strong environmental standards, has the largest percentage of its GDP from manufacturing of any major country — 20 percent.

Schorsch has five recommendations for a manufacturing revival in the energy sector:

• Improving the economy by avoiding the fiscal cliff, by funding infrastructure and by regulating effectively.
• Adopting an intelligent, pragmatic approach to addressing climate change.
• Making industrial energy efficiency the focus of policy initiatives even in an era of fiscal constraint.
• “Beware the false prophets of tax reduction.”
• Recognize that “things will still be made of things.” (more…)

At a time when we have more than $15 trillion national debt, American taxpayers are set to give away over $110 billion dollars to the oil, gas, and coal industries over the next decade. Clearly, we cannot afford it. When the five largest oil companies made over $1 trillion in profits in the last decade, with some paying no federal income taxes for part of that time, they certainly do not need it.

It is time we end this corporate welfare in the form of massive subsidies and tax breaks to hugely profitable fossil fuel corporations. It is time for Congress to support the interests of the taxpayer instead of powerful special interests like the oil and coal industries. That is I joined with Congressman Keith Ellison to introduce legislation in the Senate and the House called the End Polluter Welfare Act. Our proposal is backed by grassroots and public-interest organizations including 350.org, Friends of the Earth, Taxpayers for Common Sense, and many others.

It is immoral that some in Congress advocate savage cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security while those same people vote to preserve billions in tax breaks for Exxon Mobil which is the most profitable corporation in America. It is equally obscene that as those members of Congress fight to continue never-ending fossil fuel subsidies worth tens of billions, they are working overtime to deny a one year extension for key sustainable energy incentives for the emerging wind and solar industries. Instead of passing strong legislation to help reverse global warming, Congress continues the giveaways to the 200-year-old fossil fuel industry even as that industry’s carbon pollution wreaks devastation on our planet. Enough is enough.

While there have been attempts to remove some of these fossil-fuel subsidies in the past, our legislation is the most comprehensive ever put together in that it would end all of the tax breaks, special financing arrangements, and federal research support for fossil fuels. Our bill would make sure the fossil fuel industry pays its fair share by reforming royalties for drilling or mining on public lands or in federal waters. We end the loopholes that allow tar sands pipeline operators to avoid paying the oil spill clean-up tax.

It is important that the American people understand just how egregious these fossil fuel handouts are:

• A Tax Deduction for an Oil Spill? — We all remember the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst oil spill in U.S. history. What is less well known is that BP is claiming a 9.9 billion tax deduction on the money they had to spend cleaning up their own mess and paying for damages they caused. That is absurd.

 

• They Manufacture What? — Coal and oil lobbyists added fossil fuels to a bill aimed at helping American manufacturers, so they too could claim ‘manufacturing’ tax deductions. The added cost for taxpayers:12 billion over the next ten years. (more…)

Private equity firms and their investors from Taft-Hartley and state pension funds offered compelling accounts of their success in securing profitable returns on investment in U.S. manufacturing – especially in the Midwest – at the Heartland Capital Strategies fourth and final Responsible Investment Forum, organized in collaboration with the Blue Green Alliance.

Michael Psaros, a co-founder and managing principal of KPS Capital Partners, the world’s leading turnaround private equity investor in the middle market, explained how KPS has achieved top decile investment returns among private equity firms globally by investing in manufacturing and industrial companies, while maintaining a constructive relationship with unions.

“When we raised our first institutional fund fifteen years ago, institutional investors were initially skeptical that superior investment returns could be achieved by investing in manufacturing. Further, investors were highly skeptical that unions could play a constructive role in the turnaround and subsequent growth of our companies.

“The industrial affiliates of the AFL-CIO did something magical at that time. They took reference calls for us reassuring potential investors in KPS of our firm’s successful track record in turning around companies, and in the power of working constructively with unions.” 

As a result, KPS was able to raise $210 million for its first fund which closed in 1998. Almost 15 years later, the firm has achieved truly world class investment returns, easily in the top decile globally according to investors, primarily by investing in manufacturing and industrial companies and mostly away from the coasts, thus proving, Psaros quipped, “that a labor-friendly fund with a card-check policy can invest and make more money than the union-hating investors.” 

Now, with almost $2.8 billion of assets under management, KPS’ funds have been oversubscribed for years, with blue chip investors from eight countries.

PRI in Manufacturing

“A turnaround, at the end of the day, is about sheer force of will.” Psaros said.  He cited the case of HHI, a supplier of forged and machined steel automotive part components with sixteen plants in the Midwest.  The company is today comprised of five formerly bankrupt firms that were facing liquidation, that KPS bought, turned around and integrated under new management, headed by Greek immigrant and University of Michigan graduate George Thanopoulos, who brought to the challenge a solid background in manufacturing from his experience at Mascotech Inc.

Six years later HHI, whose workers are variously represented by the United Steelworkers (USW), the United Auto Workers (UAW), and The Workers United “is among the most profitable auto parts company in the world on a cash flow margin basis and was solidly profitable and cash flowing straight through the automotive crisis in 2008-2009,” Psaros said.  Equally important, he noted, 3,200 jobs were saved and another 1,000 workers will be hired over the next three years. 

Pension Fund Allies

One of the Taft-Hartley pension plans that has invested in KPS funds is the International Association of Machinists (IAM), whose $9-billion pension fund is comprised of public funds, as well as single- and multi-employer plans.

IAM Fund Director Steve Sleigh explained that all three of the union’s forms of pension savings “operate under different regulatory regimes.  We’re highly regulated.  So anything we do for social well being, if it doesn’t pay off, we can’t invest in it.”

“Private markets,” he said, “give us an opportunity to have relationships, which is a good thing,” because it allows more direct oversight of developments in the investments in order to ensure that the union can readily meet its obligations to pay pension checks each month to its 83,000 plan participants. (more…)

In the small town of Jeannette in Western Pennsylvania, 400 skilled Steelworkers fabricate, assemble, test and repair centrifugal compressors and steam turbines for Elliott Group. Really, what they make is energy.

The turbines and compressors that members of United Steelworkers Local 1145 construct are essential building blocks of the energy industry and are used in the petrochemical, refining, oil and gas, and process industries.

In the energy sector, Elliott’s main business, the company’s products are used to transport oil and natural gas, aid in power recovery and even boost clean energy production by capturing and redirecting exhaust heat.

The work is exacting, technically advanced and large scale.  Recently retired Chief Operating Officer Anthony Casillo likened the large rotating machinery made in the plant to a “500,000 pound Swiss watch.”

Skilled union machinists, welders, assembly and test technicians work to exact tolerances in manufacturing components and housings. Millwrights, industrial electricians, plumbers, carpenters, pipe fitters, tin workers, certified painters, material and waste handlers, clerical workers and more, all contribute to the process.

Impellors, rotating blades used in turbomachinery to create pressure and increase the flow of liquids, are among the major components produced at the plant. The impellers are machined to exact specifications from massive blocks of steel and, once completed, are test spun at high speeds in enclosed pits to ensure they are precisely balanced. (more…)