It’s already been a very productive day on Capitol Hill for Dow Chemical and the nearly 400 manufacturers in Washington, D.C. during the NAM’s Manufacturing Summit.

Carol Williams of Dow just met with Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) to share what’s on the minds of manufacturers and the conversation kept coming back to energy, energy, energy.

She shared the simple fact that manufacturers are the largest consumers of energy in the U.S. Senator Brown was told how critical it is that we take advantage of developing our domestic resources, including shale gas – a true game changer for manufacturers.

Thus far the message of manufacturers is being heard loud and clear!

The Detroit News today reports on President Obama’s recognition of Dow Chemical Co. and the company’s chairman and CEO, Andrew Liveris, as important contributors to the U.S. economy and manufacturing. From “White House takes notice of Dow CEO“:

Dow Chemical Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Andrew Liveris has become a frequent guest at the White House, trying to wield influence with President Barack Obama as a voice for Michigan and manufacturing.

Liveris, who serves on the President’s Export Council, visited the White House at least 10 times in the past two years for meetings large and small, social events and quarterly council meetings, said Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement.

Liveris “competes aggressively to win contracts that will lead to jobs in the U.S. and in Michigan,” Jarrett said. “He is someone with whom we are in very regular dialogue.”

The company sent the newspaper a statement from Liveris, who said: “In partnership with local, state and federal officials, we have brought new investment and high-paying jobs to Michigan. If we can do it here, in our recession battered state, it can be done anywhere in the U.S.” (continue reading…)

Wall Street Journal, James Hagerty, “U.S. Factories Buck Decline,” with the sub-headline, “Sector Creating More Jobs Than It’s Cutting; ‘Shining Star’”:

U.S. manufacturing, viewed as a lost cause by many Americans, has begun creating more jobs than it eliminates for the first time in more than a decade.

As the economy recovered and big companies began upgrading old factories or building new ones, the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. last year grew 1.2%, or 136,000, the first increase since 1997, government data show. That total will grow again this year, according to economists at IHS Global Insight and Moody’s Analytics.

Companies cited: Ford Motor Co., Whirlpool Corp., Caterpillar Inc., Dow Chemical Company.

Journal editors also interview Hagerty on the story, “Video: Manufacturing in the U.S. Makes a Comeback as More Jobs Are Created than Lost – News Hub.”

The President’s Export Council, reconstituted under the Obama Administration in July, holds its first official session on Thursday, Sept. 16. In preparation for the session, subcommittee leaders have just been named.

The council is the major advisory body assigned with recommending steps to the White House and Administration needed to double U.S. exports within five years, a goal President Obama announced in  State of the Union address.  That was last January, and the President provided more detail in March, so the target is now about four-and-a-half years out.

The council includes representatives of some of the largest exporting companies in the United States, with a solid representation of manufacturers with global operations. The National Association of Manufacturers strongly supports the export initiative and has offered its own, comprehensive set of recommendations to help achieve its goals, “Blueprint to Double Exports in Five Years.”

Boeing provided more detail on the subcommitees in a news release, “Executives Named to Lead President’s Export Council Subcommittees“:

Continuing our look at this year’s State of the State addresses, we turn to West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat. In his 2010 address on Wednesday, Jan. 13, he did not mention manufacturing and the only reference to industry was a passing reference to taxation of industrial property.

But this exercise — searching only for the terms “manufacturing” and the like — is limited. Manchin, a Democrat, certainly gave manufacturers prominent play in his speech, especially in the area of energy and coal:

We have more than 1,000 megawatts of wind power in service or in development – that’s enough to power more than 250,000 homes! And we have the third-largest wind capacity of any eastern state.

The world’s first successful carbon capture and sequestration project is at AEP’s Mountaineer Power Plant in Mason County, and an advanced pilot project is capturing CO2 at the Dow Chemical plant in South Charleston.

These pilot projects will lead the way for implementation of this technology at coal-fired power plants around the world.

Plans are moving ahead on a coal-to-liquids project in Mingo County that will use state-of-the-art cleaner coal technology. Through this technology, West Virginia coal will be our primary energy source as we make the transition to the fuels of the future.

Manchin also gave a plug to developing the natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale.

Earlier posts on states of the state.

Things were looking up for Dole legally even before a federal judge rejected a Nicaraguan court’s award against the company as coming from a fundamentally unfair legal system. (See earlier post.)

The latest edition of California Lawyer magazine covers the corrupt class-action case against Dole based on invented claims of chemical exposure in Nicaragua banana plantations. The article, “Rotten Bananas,” uses the rulings by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Victoria G. Chaney to tell the story. She denounced the lawsuit as “not just a fraud on this court, but …blatant extortion of the defendants.”

A “heinous conspiracy” by plaintiffs attorneys in Nicaragua and the United States had so infected “every aspect” of the cases, she said, that it is “not possible for this court to ensure a fair, untainted trial.” …She dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims with prejudice, “preventing their ability to ever come back, at least in this court, and hopefully in any other court, and raise these claims again.” She added, “I have serious, serious doubts about the bona fides of any plaintiff claiming to have been injured as a result of exposure to DBCP while working on banana plantations. Because of all this, lesser sanctions are wholly inadequate.”

• The Recorder, Oct. 19, “Lawyer Facing Possible Discipline Digs Hole a Little Deeper
• The Recorder, Oct. 6, “Lawyer Who Signed Fraudulent Briefs in Pesticide Class Action May Be Spared Suspension”
• Dole news release, June 19, “Dole Vindicated by Court’s Formal Findings of Fraud and Corruption by Nicaraguan Plaintiffs Claiming Injury by DBCP and Their Lawyers

But there’s always law firm willing to role the dice, down the shake. From a news release, announcing a $150 million lawsuit:

Austin, TX (PRWEB) October 19, 2009 — On November 2nd, HendlerLaw and The Lanier Law Firm will ask a Texas Court to certify an international class action against Dole Food Company, Inc., The Dow Chemical Company and others for DBCP related injuries to Banana plantation workers from various countries (cause # 93-c-2290, Texas State Court, Brazoria County).

The Class Action Complaint alleges exposure to DBCP while working on Dole and Chiquita Banana plantations caused sterility, renal damage, cancer and other health problems and contends Dole senior management expressly directed farm managers to disregard safe use guidelines.

With unemployment nearing 10 percent and the economy barely starting to recover, we hope, from the deepest post-WWII recession, we need to remember that suits like this damage business investment and economic growth. It’s a good time to reread the Pacific Research Institute’s “Jackpot Justice: The True Cost of America’s Tort System,” which reports, “[The] economic drag of the American tort system costs billions, lowering the standard of living for ordinary citizens nationwide.”

Text of a full-page ad running in today’s Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal:

The Unshaken Pillar

 While key pillars of our economy — housing, banking, autos — have been shaken, one pillar stands unshaken and provides the stability that our economy so desperately needs at this critical time. That pillar touches every American. It supports every local economy. It interacts with every business sector, from agriculture to technology. It provides more than 1.8 million high-paying jobs and another 4.6 million related jobs. It is a pillar of our economy that will not and cannot go away. That pillar is energy.

Today, Americans understand that a strong and diverse energy sector is vital to our economic well-being and prosperity. They know that energy produced here at home creates good-paying American jobs, reduces our dependence on others, and spurs the necessary investment and innovation needed to develop all forms of energy. Congress responded to the American public. Its decision to let expire the 26-year moratorium on exploration of the Outer Continental Shelf may prove to be a significant measure in addressing our long-term economic health. The best guarantee of America’s energy security and economic competitiveness is a combination of exploring for more oil and gas at home, intensified initiatives to develop alternative and renewable forms of energy, and continued improvements in energy efficiency and conservation. Responsible, environmentally sound exploration and production of America’s vast energy resources will over time:

• Add more high-paying American jobs across all sectors of our economy;
• Provide billions in new tax revenues that can be used by local, state and federal governments to fund important programs that are at risk due to our current credit crisis; and
• Reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources and the outflow of U.S. capital to foreign countries.

We are optimistic about America’s future and are convinced that our current economic challenges can and will be met. An important step toward that bright future is to make sure that the energy pillar of our economy remains strong, growing and sustainable.

Sincerely,

 

David J. O’Reilly	Michael G. Morris
Chairman and CEO	Chairman, President and CEO
Chevron Corporation	American Electric Power Company, Inc.
Frederick W. Smith	Andrew N. Liveris
Chairman, President and CEO	Chairman and CEO
FedEx Corporation	The Dow Chemical Company

The Detroit Economic Club will sponsor a major economic and manufacturing summit next June, the Detroit Free Press reports based on a conversation with the club’s president, Beth Chappell. Details of the National Summit will be announced after Dow’s Andrew Liveris addresses the club at noon today. From the Freep:

“The inspiration to do this came from listening to the voices at our podium, time after time, calling for collaboration and the urgency to tackle key issues for the future of our country, the future of our children and grandchildren,” Chappell told me. She has been working on the idea for nearly two years and has raised more than $2 million in pledges from sponsors to finance the event, whose cochairs will be Liveris and Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr.

Chappell said the event will not be focused on Detroit, Michigan or the auto industry, but rather on key national issues of technology, energy, environment and manufacturing. Think of the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering of the mighty and powerful in Davos, Switzerland, but with a U.S. focus.

NAM President John Engler speaks at the Detroit Economic Club on October 13.