Shopfloor.org has posted often on the development of the Bakken Formation’s oil in North Dakota, Montana and the Prairie Provinces because it’s such a huge economic success story. The profitable development despite the depth (2 miles) of the shale formation testifies to the importance of new technology — advanced seismic exploration, hydrofracturing and directional drilling — and reaffirms the economic impact of domestic oil development.

The Wall Street Journal today reiterates these points with a well-done piece, “Oil Industry Booms — in North Dakota.” Excerpt:

The Bakken Shale deposit has been known and even tapped on occasion for decades. But technological improvements in the past two years have taken what was once a small, marginally profitable field and turned it into one of the fastest-growing oil-producing areas in the U.S.

The Bakken Shale had helped North Dakota oil production double in the past three years, surging to 80 million barrels in 2009—tiny relative to the more than seven billion barrels consumed by the U.S. every year, but enough to vault the state past Oklahoma and Louisiana to become the country’s fourth-biggest oil producer, after Texas, Alaska and California. If current projections hold, North Dakota’s oil production could pass Alaska’s by the end of the decade.

The Journal reports that the oil now pays off when prices hit $50 a barrel, down from $80.

Thanks largely to the oil boom, North Dakota’s economy has fought off the recession. The state’s unemployment rate in December was 4.3 percent.

Labor shortages are the inevitable downside. The Williston Area Development Foundation in northwestern North Dakota has a website set up to attract potential employees, RockintheBakken.com. There’s a jobs fair in Williston Thursday for people who hold commercial drivers licenses.

It’s trouble other states would love to have. The first step to get there: Regard domestic energy development as a boon, not a bane.

More from The New York Times’ very interesting report on Germany’s manufacturers and the country’s export-driven economy, “Germany’s Export Prowess Weighs on Euro-Zone“:

[German] workers were once the ones known for being too expensive and inflexible. But for years, unions have accepted modest wage increases, and they agreed to measures that help companies address fluctuations in demand without resorting to mass firing.

For example, Glasbau Hahn — which is not unionized — managed to avoid any layoffs last year by deploying so-called work-time accounts, a widely used tool. Employees bank overtime hours during busy periods. When business is slow, they work less but draw on the accounts to keep receiving the same pay.

Employers also have come to value Germany’s political stability and the skills of its workers, even when they are more costly. In the coming week, Sun Chemical, a maker of specialty inks for food packaging based in Parsippany, N.J., will inaugurate a new plant in Frankfurt employing 120 people.

“You can get cheaper labor in other countries,” said Rudi Lenz, chief executive of Sun Chemical. “But we need trained and experienced people, and you find them in Germany.”

Work-time accounts? Looks like flex-time. [UPDATE: We meant comp time. It looks like comp time.]

Glasbau Hahn’s website (in English) is here. Sun Chemical’s is www.sunchemical.com.

An interesting juxtaposition in today’s New York Times, which reports in separate on the manufacturing sectors of major U.S. competitors, China and Germany.

“Defying Global Slump, China Has Labor Shortage:

Some manufacturers, already weeks behind schedule because they can’t find enough workers, are closing down production lines and considering raising prices. Such increases would most likely drive up the prices American consumers pay for all sorts of Chinese-made goods.

Rising wages could also lead to greater inflation in China. In the past, inflation has sown social unrest.

“Germany’s Export Prowess Weighs on Euro-Zone,” using the Frankfurt company Glasbau Hahn, a small manufacturer of high-cost museum display cases, to illustrate the power of Germany’s export-driven economy.

Glasbau Hahn is a miniature multinational company, generating more than 60 percent of its sales abroad and dominating its narrow but lucrative niche: the global market for museum display cases. Even King Tut’s mummy lies in a climate-controlled vitrine made in Glasbau Hahn’s workshop, which sits next to a railyard and across the street from a Fiat showroom.

And …

Glasbau Hahn helps explain why Germany is so competitive. The company and those similar to it are sometimes called hidden champions. They learned long ago to compensate for slow domestic growth by expanding overseas. And to offset the high cost of labor in Germany, they concentrate on premium products that customers are willing to pay more for.

But consumer borrowing and buying in the EU’s importing countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal have caused serious economic problems.

Yesterday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) announced that a new agreement to patent reform legislation had been made.

Sen. Leahy’s Patent Reform Act of 2009, (S. 515) passed through the Judiciary Committee thanks to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s deft ability to bring parties on both sides of the controversial damages provisions together to agree on compromise language –- language that the NAM was supportive of because it ensured that no one sector would get a bonanza at the expense of another business sector.

Despite that success, S. 515 got hung up on other less high-profile, but just as important issues. After nine months of negotiations, another agreement (that contains the same compromise language on damages) appears to be in the making. While the official amendment-in-the-form-of-a-substitute language has yet to be released, we’re told that there’s been substantial movement on a number of issues.

While litigation reforms are very important, key to all manufacturers’ concerns is how will the US Patent & Trademark Organization fare – will there be an end to the diversion of their fees into the general treasury? Will USTPO Director David Kappos have the ability to make rules and set new fees? What’s being done to improve patent quality and decrease the time it takes to have a patent issued? The National Academy of Sciences issued a report in 2004 highly critical of how resources were being allocated to the USPTO, and offered a number of fixes that would not only strengthen the USPTO, but in the long run, strengthen our nation’s manufacturers’ ability to innovate.

As soon as we know what the new bill language looks like, we’ll make sure that the NAM’s members find out. More news as it comes in over the transom…

(Marc-Anthony Signorino is technology director for the National Association of Manufacturers)

From the White House’s annual report of the Middle Class Task Force, released today by Vice President Biden:

Protecting Workers and Creating Middle-Class Jobs. Access to good quality jobs, with fair compensation and stable benefits, is a key factor in building a strong middle class. The Administration’s most immediate imperative in this regard is to do all we can to jumpstart job creation. Building on some of the successes of the Recovery Act, the President has outlined a program to quickly generate job growth in small businesses, clean energy, and infrastructure. In addition, the Middle Class Task Force is focusing on the following initiatives to ensure that we create good jobs that can sustain a middle-class lifestyle and that workers are treated fairly:

••Passing the Employee Free Choice Act. To level the playing field for workers who want to form unions, the Administration is committed to passing the Employee Free Choice Act. The loss of bargaining power has been a factor in both the stagnation of middle-class earnings and the divergence of wage growth from productivity growth. Restoring the right to pursue collective bargaining in a more balanced environment would help middle-class workers get their fair share of the gains as the American economy recovers.

That’s on page v of the Executive Summary, so it’s one of the premises the Task Force started with as opposed to key finding and recommendation for moving forward. So consider it just boilertrap and clap-plate.

(Hat tip: U.S. Chamber’s Workforce Freedom Initiative)

UPDATE (2:40 p.m.): We jumped to post before reading through the whole report. On pages 23-24, the task force reaffirms and even elevates the Administration’s support for the anti-democratic Employee Free Choice Act: “Over the course of this year, the Task Force will continue to promote the benefits of union membership and to amplify the President’s message of the importance of EFCA as a way to guarantee workers who want to organize a fair chance to do so.”

Forced unionization is NOT a means to a more prosperous, stable middle class. Organized labor will applaud a renewed push for the Employee Free Choice Act in an election year, but the politics here only add to the uncertainty that discourages business investment.

Introduced Thursday, Feb. 26, by Reps. Ike Skelton (D-MO), Collin Peterson (D-PA), and Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), H. J. RES. 76, “Disapproving a rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the endangerment finding and the cause or contribute findings for greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act.” From the joint news release, Skelton’s comment:

Congress stands in the shoes of the American people. Executive branch agencies, like EPA, carry out the laws passed by Congress.

When Congress passed the Clean Air Act, it never gave EPA the explicit authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for the purpose of stopping global climate change. But, that is exactly what EPA has proposed to do.

I do not agree with the EPA or the 2007 Supreme Court ruling that gave the Agency that authority. So, today, I introduced a bipartisan joint resolution to stop EPA from implementing its proposed greenhouse gas regulations that would likely be very costly to farmers, business owners, Midwestern utilities, and consumers.

The resolution of disapproval does not stop Congress from working on important energy legislation, though I do hope it will set aside cap and trade in favor of a more scaled back bipartisan bill. My resolution does, however, keep EPA from threatening Congress with its own greenhouse gas policy as we write legislation.

Again we see prominent Democrats — Skelton and Peterson are House committee chairmen — reasserting the proper policymaking role of Congress vis a vis an Administration of their own party. Last week, eight Senate Democrats wrote a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson also affirming the legislative branch’s primacy.

The Sketon-Peterson-Emerson measure is a direct resolution of disapproval, as opposed to H.R. 4572, which the three members of Congress introduced in early February. That measure would have removed major greenhouse gases from regulation under the Clean Air Act while promoting biomass energy.

Vice President Joe Biden today issued the first annual report of the Middle Class Task Force, reaching the pre-ordained conclusion that the middle class needs more government programs and financial support.

The task force did spend a lot of time talking about the manufacturing sector, efforts recounted starting on page 13 of the report. Two of the task force’s meetings during the year emphasized manufacturing, the first in Perrysburg, Ohio, and then a White House meeting in December.

Looking ahead, the Vice President and Task Force intend to work with the agencies and with Senior Counselor Bloom to continue to promote the Administration’s manufacturing agenda. Policies in this space may include: export promotion, transitional assistance to supply chains (especially former auto suppliers), public/private partnerships (especially in green manufacturing), and continuing to build off of the ARRA investments noted above.

There’s much to welcome there policywise, and we’re glad to see export promotion head the list.

The Middle Class Task Force report also extensively promotes “green jobs” and the “green economy.” Coincidently, The Washington Post today runs an op-ed by Sunil Sharan, an expert in the “smart grid” and other clean-energy developments. Using the example of “smart meters” — the retail, consumer portion of smart grid technology — he concludes that the technological advances probably result in net job destruction. He concludes:

For the purpose of creating jobs, then, a “clean-energy economy” will not offer a panacea. This does not necessarily mean that America should not become green to alleviate climate change, to kick its addiction to foreign oil or to use energy sources more efficiently. But those who take great pains to tout the “job-creation potential” of the green space might just end up inducing labor pains all around.

Jay Timmons, executive vice president of the NAM, returns home to speak to business leaders. From The Chillicothe Gazette, “Chillicothe native: More small town jobs will help restore economy“: “[The] key to create and maintain jobs in the U.S. is to lowering the corporate tax and changing the polices in Washington. ‘One thing I know for sure is that Americans will still stand in line for manufacturing jobs if they are around,’ he said.”

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “Manufacturing growing slowly: “At the tail of end last year, there was a spike in orders for durable goods. But that was likely due to an expiring pro-investment tax provision for accelerated depreciation of equipment, according to the National Association of Manufacturers, based in Washington, D.C.”

Detroit News, “Blanchard, Engler agree term limits were bad idea“: “[Engler] did say Granholm’s pursuit of alternative energy manufacturing is taking advantage of an opportunity. ‘We’re in on the bottom, I would say, and have an opportunity,’ he said.”

Birmingham News blog, “Alabama one of three states suing the EPA for its ruling that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health“: “‘If EPA moves forward and begins regulating stationary sources, it will open the door for them to regulate everything from industrial facilities to farms to even American homes,’ John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, said when his organization filed its challenge last week.”

John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, was interviewed by WJR’s Frank Beckman earlier this week, leading up to Engler’s appearances with former Gov. Jim Blanchard to help raise funds for the Michigan Political Leadership Forum.

The interview opens with the expected jousting and joshing on Michigan and Washington politics, but then Frank turns the discussion to the Milken Institute report, “Jobs for America.” Engler observes:

The big 10,000 foot view is that this nation needs to have a growth strategy, and with a growth strategy you end up getting jobs in the private sector. We don’t think there’s such a strategy in place at the moment, and it’s important to recognize that just like the states compete vigorously against each other, nations are now competing against each other.

Our nation really has opted out. It’s sort of like going to the Olympics and not training and hoping that somehow you’re going to win a medal. Not going to happen.

We think you’ve got to get very aggressive. When we look at the competitive environment in the world, you cannot send Michigan or Ohio or even North Carolina or Mississippi out to compete against Singapore or China or Ireland with some of the things that they’re doing to attract business and investment.

I tell people, Frank, that you want the United States to be the best place in the world to locate a company, to headquarter it. You want it to be the best place in the world to do the bulk of your research and development, and them finally, you want it to be a great place to do a lot of manufacturing, and especially to meet the needs of the North American market.

That’s when you get to the idea that taxes matter, regulations matter, the right kind of education or workforce training – all of that matters. Frankly, we’ve got so much room for improvement, and the conversation in Washington is creating lots of risks, lots of doubts, and solving no problems.

Engler and Beckman also discuss health care policy. The full interview is available as a podcast, “Frank talks with Gov. John Engler, who will be in town for the Michigan Political Leadership program at MSU.”

The label below was on the plastic bag packaging of a T-shirt that came in the mail yesterday. In the world of Wacky Warning Labels as compiled by legal reformer Bob Dorigo Jones, the bag doesn’t rate with Remove Child Before Folding, but it’s still pretty good.

We wonder about the legal liability that attaches to the bad translations. If you’re a monolingual German-speaker who gets an LP in the mail and you give the packaging to your kids to play with, do you have a tort claim if something bad happens?

Gepahr? Sauclingen?

Maybe it’s Plattdeutsch.