Earlier this month the Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) lauched the short docuementary embeded below entitled, “Unplugged:  Reconnecting American Energy Policy with Reality,” The video highlights America’s need to tap its own abundant resources of reliable, affordable energy and shows how decisions made in Washington impact real people in the real world. 

NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons shares his thoughts in the video about the direction of U.S. energy policy and the need to maintain a reliable and affordable flow of power to our nation’s manufacturers. Timmons also highlights current regulatory policies and the impact they could have on American competitiveness.

PACE is using this documentary at town hall meetings across the country in the run up to the 2012 elections. Today, the organization put out “bonus footage” from Timmons’ extended interview. 

We hope folks will find this documentary as useful tool on how America can have clean energy and still grow the economy and create jobs.

Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland delivered a 28-minute State of the State address on Thursday. The second-term governor, a Democrat, mentioned manufacturing several times in the context of building a “new economy” for the state. The word “green” was used.

Excerpts:

As President Obama said last week, “We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.”

To make this new economy ours, we must make the right choices and investments to create jobs by spurring innovation: innovation in the classroom; innovation in public safety; innovation in science, discovery, healing, manufacturing, green energy and trade; innovation in public health, innovation in our own experiment in self-governance.

…

To create more jobs, we must leverage the power of our diversity,… we must leverage the power of our geography,… And we must harness the potential of Maryland’s Innovation Economy: bio-tech, green-tech, clean-tech, cyber security,23 information technology, aerospace, global trade, and next generation manufacturing

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Not to be a nudnik, but when it comes to meaningful Sputnik references, Chester Finn Jr. does a better job than President Obama and Seretary of Energy Steven Chu. From The New York Times, “Shanghai Test Scores Stun Educators“:

With China’s debut in international standardized testing, students in Shanghai have surprised experts by outscoring their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in math and science, according to the results of a respected exam. …

“Wow, I’m kind of stunned, I’m thinking Sputnik,” said Chester E. Finn Jr., who served in President Ronald Reagan’s Department of Education, referring to the groundbreaking Soviet satellite launching. Mr. Finn, who has visited schools all across China, said, “I’ve seen how relentless the Chinese are at accomplishing goals, and if they can do this in Shanghai in 2009, they can do it in 10 cities in 2019, and in 50 cities by 2029.”

Finn is suggesting that a discrete news event — the release of Chinese test scores — should shock the United States into action, specifically on education.

President Obama and Secretary Chu’s recent evocations of Sputnik were more along the lines of, “We face big challenges from overseas, so we better wise up.”

In all cases, their general points are correct.

President Obama on Monday, remarks at Forsyth Technical Community College, Winston-Salem, N.C.:

If this is truly going to be our Sputnik moment, we need a commitment to innovation that we haven’t seen since President Kennedy challenged us to go to the moon.  And we’re directing a lot of that research into one of the most promising areas for economic growth and job creation –- and that’s clean energy technology.  (Applause.)  I don’t want to see new solar panels or electric cars or advanced batteries manufactured in Europe or in Asia.  I want to see them made right here in America, by American businesses and American workers.  (Applause.)

From ExecutiveGov.com, “Will China Win Clean-Energy Race? Chu Ponders ‘Sputnik Moment’ for US”

Speaker of the House Steny Hoyer (D-MD) joined other Democrats Thursday at a news conference to promote next week’s legislative emphasis on manufacturing, the “Make it in America” agenda. Rep. Hoyer issued a statement on next week’s agenda, and majority leader’s website now lists the bills that constitute it. Excerpt from the statement:

“Make it in America” is a new legislative initiative from House Democrats to increase American manufacturing and create new American jobs.  The American public strongly supports a renewed focus on American manufacturing. This effort builds on House Democrats’ actions since the start of the Great Recession to create jobs and lay the foundation for a strong economy.

“Make it in America” bills that have passed the House:  

• U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act 
• Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (SECTORS) Act 

“Make it in America” bills that are scheduled to come to the House Floor the week of July 26th, 2010: 

• National Manufacturing Strategy Act 
• Clean Energy Technology Manufacturing and Export Assistance Act
• End the Trade Deficit Act 

We thought it might be helpful to provide more context on the bills as well as the NAM’s position where applicable. On the already enacted legislation, then:

• The U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act is H.R. 4380, the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, was introduced last December and recently given the new, manufacturing-evoking title. The National Association of Manufacturers supported passage with a “Key Vote” letter and lauded House action with a statement.
•  The SECTORS Act is H.R. 1855, introduced by Rep. Dave Loebsback (D-IA) in April 2009, was referrred to committee, never had a hearing, and then re-emerged earlier this month for the floor vote. The bill authorizes the Department of Labor to award competitive grants for worker training in high-demand and emerging industries. The National Association of Manufacturers supports skills training, generally, but House action on this bill came unexpectedly.

On next week’s bills: (continue reading…)

We continue our look at governors’ states of the state addresses for their references to “manufacturing” or “manufacturers.” Earlier posts on New York Gov. David Paterson, Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire and Kansas Gov. Mark Patterson are below.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered his final State of the State address on Thursday, Jan. 7, in Sacramento. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was first elected with the recall of Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and then re-elected in 2006.

His specific reference to manufacturing (text of speech):

And fourth, since we want California to be the dynamo of green technology, I ask you to pass our proposal exempting the purchase of green-tech manufacturing equipment from the sales tax. That too means jobs. (Applause) Those are jobs for the new economy.

No references to “industry” or its variants.

Again, the exercise is to just search for those terms. All these states of state addresses deal with economic policy; we’re just interested to see if “manufacturing” rises to the level of specific mentions.

We continue our look at governors’ states of the state addresses for their references to “manufacturing” or “manufacturers.” Earlier posts on Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire and Kansas Gov. Mark Patterson are below:

New York Gov. David Paterson gave his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature on Thursday, Jan. 7. Paterson, a Democrat, became governor in March 2008 after the resignation of scandal-plagued Eliot Spitzer.

Paterson’s speech, entited “A Time to Rebuild,” contained many references to manufacturing. First, as part of the framing of the speech:

I come here today not to replay old grievances or in any way to reclaim lost ground. We come here to build. To build New York’s economy to a national model of ingenuity and strength. To build our people’s trust in the fiscal stability of our State. To build our manufacturing to meet the energy standards of this enlightened era. And most importantly, to build the trust that the people of New York once had in their State government.

And then as a framing for protocols:

Now, the third protocol in our desire to rebuild New York is that we bring our economy back to the greatness that it once held, with a focus on jobs for the New Economy; for manufacturing meeting the energy standards that we will need; for the whole idea of putting people back to work; and a commitment to helping New Yorkers raise themselves up.

And then as a framing for programs:

We will also go back to the historic manufacturing industry and make it whole again – with tax credits and also with retrofits for small businesses; with a reformed Power for Jobs Program; and a cutting-edge and groundbreaking concept of buying up, retrofitting, and reselling abandoned manufacturing sites.

In addition, we will not forget the hundreds of thousands of trades and manufacturing and construction job-holders, who will be vital to our revitalizing this process.

We continue looking at governors’ addresses…

Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington gave her State of the State address on Tuesday in Olympia, a speech heavy in state budget proposals, including cuts in government and unspecified tax increases.

Gregoire, a Democrat first elected in 2004, did not use the word “manufacturing” or its variant in her prepared text. As for the word “industry”:

[Here], ladies and gentlemen, is what I hear people say.

They tell me they are scared but they know things will get better. That we are on the cusp of a new economy. And that jobs will come from the growth industries of tomorrow in fields like clean energy, health care and technology.

More …

Washington has always been a state that attracts capital — both financial and intellectual. We need to keep that tradition going, and one way to do that is to stimulate capital investment in biotechnology, software development, health care, clean technology, renewable energy, aerospace and other industries that will drive our future.

The goal is to attract $2 billion in capital investments to fuel job growth.

And finally…
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