This year is halfway over. So this week “America’s Business with Mike Hambrick” will take a look back at some of our favorite guests so far in 2008.

We’ll re-air excerpts of our June interview with former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich about his push to help America find alternative energy. Gingrich is now general chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future, a bipartisan group that is trying to solve some of our nation’s most pressing issues.

The group’s online petition asking citizens whether they want more oil drilling has attracted more than 1.2 million signatures. “We believe that the American people deserve to have the least expensive energy possible in an environmentally sound way and in a way that strengthens national security,” Gingrich said.

Europe is way ahead of the United States when it comes to developing nuclear energy. This week you can listen to our February interview with Tennessee Republican Rep. Zach Wamp. Wamp say the United States should be the No. 1 nation when it comes to developing nuclear and other alternative energy sources.

The news media and the government tend to fan up hysteria about issues ranging from asbestos to global warming. Back in April we talked about this phenomenon with Christopher Booker and Richard North, authors of the book “Scared to Death.” We’ll play some of that interview.

“America’s Business” will also re-air parts of a February interview on the state of the nation’s manufacturing sector with Assistant Commerce Secretary William “Woody” Sutton. And we’ll take you back to January when we talked with NBC Universal General Counsel Rick Cotton about a campaign to battle intellectual property theft. Cotton is chairman of the Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy.

In our regular segment, Renee Giachino of American Justice Partnership gives us the latest on tort reform. And the National Association of Manufacturers President Gov. John Engler will close the program with “The Last Word.”

For more information on “America’s Business with Mike Hambrick” check out www.americasbusiness.org.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing today on the consumer benefits of protecting intellectual property. Two NAM-member companies were represented by witnesses, who offered testimony:

From Mr. Thurnau’s testimony:

Counterfeit parts and components for cars, trucks, buses and commercial vehicles pose a critical problem to the American economy and the supplier industry because of the wide range of counterfeit products manufactured and trafficked worldwide. Counterfeit goods cost motor vehicle suppliers at least $3 billion in the United States and $12 billion globally in lost sales. These losses correlate to at least 250,000 fewer motor vehicle supplier manufacturing jobs nationwide. Please note that these are conservative numbers based on a 1997 Federal Trade Commission study.

About 80 percent of all pirated goods seized at U.S. borders originate in China. And while it is clear in our industry that more pirated parts come from China than any other nation, we do face significant challenges from Russia, India and many other nations. The temptation might be to criticize the Chinese government for lack of intellectual property enforcement but our experience would say that is inaccurate and counterproductive. The counterfeiters that we deal with are for the most part rogue operators, criminals. The Chinese government pursues those criminals when our company presents evidence of our trademarks being violated. Enforcement issues are often caused by a lack of resources, particularly at the provincial and city level.

Wang Qishan, vice premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, “No More Chinese Knock-Offs,” detailing the government’s efforts to protect intellectual property rights. There’s a lot of work to do, that’s for sure.