The folks over at Policy Matters in Ohio have issued a new report that says the Buckeye State could be a key player in the supply chain for the growing electric vehicles (EV) market in the U.S.

The report says that positive policy changes — like the increased fuel-efficiency standards put forward by the Obama administration, federal and state incentives for EV purchases, and investments in charging infrastructure — are succeeding at making EVs attractive to car buyers, and that could mean jobs in Ohio. If, that is, the state acts now to utilize the manufacturing knowledge of its work force and promotes existing manufacturers to get in the EV parts manufacturing market.

The group’s Green Electricity and Transpiration (GET) Smart policy solutions are the vehicle to achieving this goal. They boil down to a few simple, but effective, ideas that will drive growing in the EV supply chain in Ohio. From the report:

• Create a Transportation Choice fund in Ohio's transportation budget. By 2030, ramp funding up to 10 percent of the state’s multi-billion dollar transportation budget;
• Expand Ohio’s Advanced Energy Fund and using it to provide grants, rebates, vouchers, and low-interest loans to promote EV adoption;
• Protect and expand Ohio’s clean energy laws;
• Identify existing Ohio manufacturers that can participate in the EV supply chain, helping them retool to meet the needs of this industry, and investing in related research and development.

Notice that promoting clean energy and sustaining the work already done in the state is a vital component of their plan. Clean energy and electric vehicles go hand-in-hand.

Making sure the energy we use to charge electric vehicles is clean and renewable only makes sense. It reduces carbon pollution, while also creating even more good jobs in other sectors for workers making the components to generate power from wind, solar, and other renewable sources and those in the building trades installing and maintaining them. And, more and more ways are being developed to help EVs move excess energy back into the grid for all of us to use.

The bottom line is that to reduce our imports of foreign oil, make our economy stronger by creating new jobs and making our current jobs more secure, and fighting climate change, we need to move to more fuel-efficient vehicles, including EVs.

The following is cross-posted from the NRDC's Switchboard blog.

Wrapping paper sales drives, cereal box top campaigns, donation solicitations—as a child of California’s public school system, I was introduced early to fundraising. And while I have nothing but fond memories for the rotating disco ball awarded to me as a top magazine seller of my middle school, I am now beginning to wonder, what if there was a better way to close the funding gap?

Ohio legislators and schools have an answer: a resounding yes, in the form of energy efficiency. Recently named the nation’s leader in energy-efficient schools—259 of them LEED certified—Ohio’s education system, by using technologies and retrofitting inefficient buildings to use energy more efficiently, is redirecting capital from fossil fuels toward the schools’ bottom line: improving education. Implementing energy efficiency upgrades saves an average of $100,000 in annual operating costs, or enough money to hire two new teachers, buy 200 new computers, or purchase 5,000 textbooks.

While there are many factors that have led to this favorable outcome, including supporting state policies like Senate Bill 221, playing a central role is energy efficiency performance contractor Brewer-Garrett.

Providing energy efficiency services for more than half a century, Brewer-Garrett works in local schools, manufacturing facilities—including a cheese factory—, and commercial buildings to maximize the efficiency of their energy consumption and minimize their energy bills. Based in the Cleveland area, the company’s long-term success can be traced to the always-in-demand service they provide: lower energy bills.

“Money is tight in Ohio,” says Energy Service Sales Consultant Dan Mitchell.  “[Clients are wondering]” where do you save money?  How do you make improvements?”

Energy efficiency performance contracting is one surefire way. Through a partnership—“marriage, really,” says Mitchell, Brewer-Garrett guarantees that a client aiming to increase a building’s energy efficiency will see significant enough savings to makemoney off of their initial investment, sometimes within as little as two years.  If a client does not see a project’s savings exceed its costs, Brewer-Garrett writes the customer a check for the difference.  “We have a lot of skin in the game,” says Mitchell. “We’re not in the business to write checks.”

What’s more, the company, employing analysts, engineers, and contractors, offers not only audits and consulting, but also the engineering expertise to see a project through in entirety. “A turnkey solution,” says Mitchell, and one that helps clients unlock energy savings to reduce local pollution and energy bills.

In a region struggling to retain capital and jobs, saving money otherwise exported to import dirty energy is a very smart investment indeed.  As more and more buildings realize these savings, more and more jobs are created, both by the building owners and by Brewer-Garrett, which, in addition to hiring nearly ten percent of its 150 person workforce in the past year, is still on the lookout for more new employees.

Beyond increasing its own workforce, Brewer-Garrett is impacting the economy of Cleveland—and Ohio as a whole—by retaining local capital to support job creation. How does energy efficiency create jobs?  As the amount people spend on energy bills declines, the money that would have been spent on fossil fuels is instead redirected to hamburgers and haircuts, which take more labor per dollar to produce.

The economic advantages of energy efficiency are indeed plentiful, but a different type of green benefit cannot be forgotten: the emissions reductions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. “The greenest energy is the energy you don’t use,” Mitchell points out. Having completed projects that cumulatively save 96 million kilowatt-hours annually, Brewer-Garrett’s work is equivalent to taking nearly 13,000 cars off of the road. Given that Ohio’s electricity is largely generated from dirty coal-fired power plants, these savings have significant environmental, as well as health, implications.

And many projects also have educational implications beyond the monetary savings they provide for schools, by engaging students in the upgrade process. Cleveland State, currently working with Brewer-Garrett on improvements slated to reduce the school’s energy consumption 20%—saving $62.9 million—by 2021, utilizes the efficiency initiative to educate students on energy management. Students of other Ohio schoolsare also benefitting from the hands-on learning opportunities that come with energy efficiency upgrades.

To see that student and faculty engagement plays an integral role in a school’s energy management scheme, Brewer-Garrett partners with energy education specialist theGreen Apple Project to translate their energy upgrades into curricula. Employing an energy project education toolkit that includes, among other things, technologies that measure the energy use of different appliances, the Green Apple Project engages students to be aware of energy management both in school and at home.

Especially in today’s world, lessons in energy efficiency seem much more valuable than the ones I got selling wrapping paper.

Image 1: Brewer-Garrett partnered with Great Lakes Cheese to increase the efficiency of their operations and drive down energy costs. Credit: Greg McDonald, Brewer-Garrett.

Image 2: The recently completed student center at Cleveland State is LEED certified. Credit: Brewer-Garrett.

The following post is from Sara Letourneau, Labor Climate Project Director for the BlueGreen Alliance.

Well, the weather was a bit drab on the second day of our Save American Jobs tour in Dayton, Ohio, but our event went very well and our spirits are high. Local leaders including Sierra Club’s Neil Waggoner, IUE-CWA Local 755 President James Winship, and Ohio Interfaith Power and Light Advocacy Chair Robert Downs, joined Steelworkers Lee Geisse and Ryan Motel at the headquarters of IUE-CWA Local 755 in Dayton to hold Speaker John Boehner’s feet to the fire to get the Production Tax Credit for wind power renewed. You can see the news release here. 

After our press event, we started on our way to Kalamazoo, Michigan where we’ll be holding an event later this morning. On the way, we found something pretty cool. We drove by the Blue Creek Wind Farm near Van Wert, Ohio that had Gamesa wind turbines — the kind Ryan and Lee help make parts for made in Pennsylvania — so we decided to take a photo of the two of them with the wind turbines in the background. 

It’s pretty amazing to see the pride on people’s faces when they see something that big that they contributed to. It’s one of the reasons why we’re doing this. American pride in American manufacturing was a dying breed only a few years ago, but today we’re bringing back and growing new jobs in the manufacturing sector. One of the drivers of that has been clean energy — like wind — and it’s vital that we fight to keep these jobs and the progress we’ve made. 

We’ll be back later today or tomorrow to wrap up our event in Kalamazoo calling on House Energy Chair Upton to save thousands of American jobs by pushing for the extension of the Production Tax Credit. Until then,  enjoy a photo of Lee and Ryan in front of the turbines! 

The following post is from Sara Letourneau, Labor Climate Project Director for the BlueGreen Alliance.

Greetings from Ohio! It was a beautiful day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Columbus, Ohio. We had our first two events of our tour calling on Congressional leadership to save thousands of American jobs by extending the Production Tax Credit. The Production Tax Credit is a proven job creator. The 2.2-cent per kilowatt-hour tax incentive that expires at the end of the year is vital to sustaining thousands of good jobs around the country.

I’m driving around with two workers – Ryan Motel, a United Steelworkers (USW) member who was furloughed earlier this summer from the Gamesa wind turbine blade plant in Ebensberg, Pennsylvania and Lee Geisse, a USW member who works in Ohio’s wind industry. At each of our stops, we’ll be joined by local wind workers, environmental, labor and community leaders to push members of Congress to extend the Production Tax Credit and save American jobs.

All told, the jobs of 37,000 Americans are at risk, and we’re bringing the voices of workers in the industry to the districts of Congressional leaders like Speaker John Boenher, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Congressman Pat Tiberi of Ohio, and Energy Committee Chair Fred Upton in Michigan. Our first two stops were successful and our message is resonating. Check out the coverage from 90.5 WESA in Pittsburgh. From the story:

Supporters of the 2.2-cent per kilowatt-hour tax credit, first passed in 1992, believe the uncertainty over the future of the credit has caused electric companies to stop building alternative energy facilities including wind farms.

“Businesses facing that kind of uncertainty have to make choices and you can’t make those choices right up to the deadline, you have to begin making those choices, unfortunately, before you get to that deadline,” said Khari Mosley, BlueGreen Alliance Regional Program Manager.

The BlueGreen Alliance is taking Motel and his message on a four-state tour that launched in Pittsburgh Tuesday and travels to Ohio, Michigan and Virginia.

Tomorrow we’ll be in Dayton and we’ll check back in after our morning event. Keep checking the blog and Twitter for updates!

This week, the BlueGreen Alliance launches a multi-state tour highlighting the need to save American jobs by renewing the Production Tax Credit, a 2.2-cent per megawatt-hour tax incentive for wind energy that expires at the end of the year. The tour includes a furloughed worker from a central Pennsylvania wind turbine blade plant, along with local wind workers on the ground and labor and environmental leaders in the three states. 

Since this summer, more than 2,000 workers in the wind industry have been laid-off or furloughed and companies have cited the lack of certainty on the tax incentive as a main cause of them. Renewing the Production Tax Credit will put people back to work and protect the jobs of 37,000 more workers who stand to lose their jobs if it is not renewed. 

“Congress is out there campaigning for their own jobs while leaving thousands of wind industry workers out to dry,” said David Foster, the Executive Director of the BlueGreen Alliance. “For the sake of saving jobs and lifting up American competitiveness and the economy, Congress must renew the Production Tax Credit.” 

Beginning Tues., Sept. 25, 2012, the tour will make stops in Pittsburgh, Pa., Columbus and Dayton, Ohio and Kalamazoo, Mich. with a final stop in Richmond, Va. on Friday, September 28^th.  

“Without the Production Tax Credit, the U.S. wind industry stands to lose significant ground, and America will lose our edge in the global competition for good jobs,” said Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. “By failing to act, we'd be putting the brakes on both a growing industry and an important alternative energy source. We can reduce pollution, make America more energy independent and leave a lasting positive environmental and economic legacy for future generations if we renew this job-creating tax incentive today.” 

The American Wind Energy Association estimates that the Production Tax Credit will allow the wind industry to grow from 75,000 current jobs to over 100,000 jobs in four years and will continue toward supporting 500,000 jobs by 2030. 

“It was tough news when I heard about the furloughs at the Gamesa plant in Ebensberg, Pa., which included my job,” said Ryan Motel, member of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2635. “I hope that those in Congress will see my face, hear my voice and have a better idea of who they are hurting because they haven’t passed the Production Tax Credit.” 

Job losses in the industry continue to add up. Last week, in the biggest single layoff to date in number of workers and states affected in the U.S., wind equipment manufacturer Siemens Energy, Inc. announced it would lay off 615 workers in Iowa, Kansas, and Florida due in part to Congress’ inaction on renewing the Production Tax Credit. Recent layoffs have also been announced in Tulsa, Okla., Little Rock, Ark., Hinesburg, Vt. and Pueblo, Colo. 

“The Production Tax Credit was vital to establishing the American wind market years ago and it’s vital today in order to expand wind-industry manufacturing,” said United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard.  “Other job creating tax credits, like the 48C Advanced Energy Project Credit, which fostered innovation and created jobs in clean energy projects while spurring private investment, expired last year and should be revisited as well. We need to act on the opportunity at-hand to build up our clean energy industries for the good of workers, our economy and the environment.” 

Tour participants will be joined along the way by Lee Geisse, member, USW Local 1046 in Louisville, Ohio, Tracy Sabetta, Ohio Outreach Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation (NWF), Neil Waggoner, Associate Organizing Representative, Sierra Club, Randy Francisco, Pennsylvania Organizing Representative, Sierra Club, Heather Sage, Vice-President, Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (Penn Future), Chelsa Wagner, Allegheny County Controller, James Winship IUE-CWA and Bob Downs with Ohio Interfaith. 

Before the August recess, a Senate committee moved forward a bill to the floor that included the Production Tax Credit for wind energy and the Investment Tax Credit for offshore wind, however both remain stalled in the House of Representatives.

New Chart and Graphic Shows State-By-State Breakdown of Jobs Created, Gasoline Saved, Net Savings to Consumers and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction 

With the imminent Obama Administration announcement of historic fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles (54.5 miles per gallon, on average, by 2025), the BlueGreen Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council have assembled a detailed accounting of the huge benefits that are projected to accrue by the year 2030. 

The data include a state-by-state breakdown of the 570,000 jobs that could be created in the United States by 2030 — as well as other benefits from the standard. In addition to the jobs created, the country will save nearly 23 billion of gasoline in 2030 alone, resulting in $54 billion in net savings to consumers and the reduction of 270 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution, which helps cause global warming. 

The upcoming 54.5 mpg standards promise to bolster the strong automobile recovery we are seeing today. The chart and graphics with state-by-state numbers can be found below. Click them to see the larger version.

2030 State Benefits of Achieving 54.5 mpg-equivalent Fleet Average in Model Year 2025 

Sources: Natural Resources Defense Council and BlueGreen Alliance

• State fuel and pollution savings are from analysis by NRDC. These figures update and augment similar tables provided in NRDC’s “Relieving Pain at the Pump” publication from April 2012. Main adjustments include updates to fuel prices and vehicle miles traveled per the latest forecasts in the Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2012.
• State jobs figures are from BlueGreen Alliance’s analysis for “Gearing Up: Smart Standards Create Good Jobs Building Cleaner Cars”, June 2012. 

Table 1: Jobs Created and Annual Consumer Savings of Model Year 2017 to 2025 Standards in 2030

For additional background information on the new fuel efficiency standards, see http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/obama_administration_set_to_fi.html. 

This blog by Renee Goneau, Marketing and Events Coordinator for the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Center, is cross-posted from the Clean Energy Manufacturing Center's website.

In July, the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation joined with several organizations for Making It Here 2012:  Manufacturing Our Energy Future conference in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to BGAF, the conference was presented by the American Clean Skies Foundation and sponsored by Advanced Energy Economy, Alliance for American Manufacturing, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), Clean Energy Manufacturing Center, GLWN, McDonald Hopkins, NorTech, Ohio Department of Development (ODOD), Transformer Engineering, LLC (Trenco) and WIRE-Net. Louis Schorsch, Executive Vice President of ArcelorMittal who was the keynote speaker, stated that energy and manufacturing can drive the economy sustainably. Schorsch mused that it’s not “Clevelandwarming” or “USwarming”; it is global warming, and this is a global economic crisis with underlying imbalances.

After two days of breakout sessions, the message from the 200 attended and 50 speakers assembled was loud and clear: Let’s all work together — manufacturers, the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture — to connect the dots and ensure insourcing rather than outsourcing, let’s make it here and let’s make it together!  There were three main categories covered at Making it Here (Supply chain, Technology and Policy) that were broken into five focuses (Wind, Solar, Natural Gas, Advanced Transportation and Energy Efficiency).

Two tours were offered as part of the conference in Cleveland, one at Transformer Engineering, LLC, a company that has specialized in the design and manufacture of custom magnetics since 1937, and Lincoln Electric, the site of the largest known urban wind tower in North America. The 2.5-megawatt wind turbine was open for the tour as was the automation plant tour that included robotic welding demonstrations. The evening ended in style aboard the Nautica Queen for a networking and dinner cruise where attendees watched the sun set on Lake Erie.

The conference is best wrapped up with this quote from Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, “The choice for our country is clear. We can make these technologies today or import them tomorrow."

This blog is cross-posted from the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference blog.

With less than a week to go to the start of Making It Here 2012: Manufacturing Our Energy Future in Cleveland, we are excited to announce a new opportunity for those interested in learning more about America’s advanced energy future.

Now, for only $40 per person or $300 per table of eight, interested people can sign up to attend the engaging kickoff lunch for the conference from 11:30-2:45 on Wednesday, July 11, 2012.

As part of this lunch, participants will listen to industry experts discuss the future of America’s renewable energy sector when Chris Ayers, President of Global Primary Products at Alcoa, moderates a plenary panel including Michael Eckhart, Managing Director of CITI Bank and former President of the American Council on Renewable Energy, and Carl Pope, Convener of the American Manufacturing Dialogue and the former Executive Director and Chairman of the Sierra Club. Additionally, Louis Schorsch, Executive Vice President of ArcelorMittal, will give a plenary address.

As head of Alcoa Global Primary Products, Ayers oversees a unit that operates 23 smelters and nine alumina refineries worldwide, with bauxite assets in Australia, Brazil, Jamaica, Suriname and Guinea. Alcoa’s global aluminum smelting capacity totals 4.8 million metric tons, and its global alumina capacity totals more than 18 million metric tons. You can learn more about Ayers background here.

Registration for the lunch and the conference is still open, so sign up today. Remember, your registration will only be $395 if you use our discount code BGAF.

This blog is cross-posted from the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference blog.

An exciting headline recently came out of Ohio, home to the Making It Here 2012: Manufacturing Our Energy Future conference: Ohioans Agree: Advanced energy technology crucial to economic survival. 

The study — which was conducted by Advanced Energy Economy and its Ohio chapter — found four out of five Ohioans believe advanced energy technology is “very important or somewhat important to America’s future” and the same percentage believe “the manufacturing of advanced energy products like batteries for power storage, high-efficiency motors and equipment, and wind turbine components are very important or somewhat important to Ohio’s economy.”

The manufacturers and clean energy advocates who attend Making It Here on July 11-12 can see how these advanced energy technologies are already putting people to work by touring either Lincoln Electric (the site of the largest known urban wind tour in North America) or Transformer Engineering, LLC (a manufacturer of costumed designed electromagnetic components) on Wednesday morning. Visit the Making It Here website for more about the schedule for these tours along with how to register.

Here is a summary of Lincoln Electric and Transformer Engineering’s work from the Making It Here website:

Lincoln Electric

Lincoln Electric is the world leader in the design, development and manufacture of arc welding products, robotic arc-welding systems, plasma and oxyfuel cutting equipment. The company also has a leading global position in the fume extraction systems, brazing, soldering and alloys markets. Lincoln has 41 manufacturing locations, including operations and joint ventures in 20 countries, and an extensive worldwide network of distributors and sales offices covering more than 160 countries.

The 2.5-megawatt wind turbine was constructed in June 2011 at Lincoln Electric’s main manufacturing campus and World Headquarters in Euclid, Ohio. The project demonstrates the company’s commitment to wind power sector leadership, environmental performance and energy savings.

Transformer Engineering, LLC

Transformer Engineering, LLC is a global company with their headquarters and U.S. manufacturing in Cleveland, Ohio.

Transformer Engineering provides a wide range of products such as: multi-pulse rectifier transformers, isolation transformers, common mode reactors, high reactance transformers, high frequency transformers, air core reactors, iron core inductors, saturable reactors, swinging chokes and many other variations.

Transformer Engineering serves customers in many market segments including: Renewable Energy, Oil & Gas, Power Quality, Locomotive / Marine, and Variable Frequency Drive companies.

Over the last several years, we have undergone a LEAN transformation, realizing substantial improvements, including:

• 85% Reduction in manufacturing costs
• 75% Reducing in cycle time
• 50% reducing in working capital

These improvements along with our advances in magnetics design and global footprint allow us to effectively support our customer needs.

Hello, my name is Lee Geisse. I’m a member of the United Steelworkers, and I’ve been working for the BlueGreen Alliance in Ohio for two years now helping to bring union members and environmentalists together to fight for good jobs that are also good for our environment.

Over the last six weeks, I’ve been working with members of our partner unions to bring the voice of labor in support of the recently proposed greenhouse gas limits for new power plants. Overall, over 2 million comments of support have been sent to the Environmental Protection Agency, and through our work in Ohio, we’ve contributed thousands of labor voices to that staggering sum.

Union members and environmentalists in my state have been working hard to support this important standard. It will spur innovation — and create jobs — ensuring the energy we generate is cleaner, and it is an important step to combating climate change, which we care about.

Union members are often on the front lines in the fight against pollution. We’re often the ones whose lives and health are put at risk first. That’s why protections like these are so important to us.

The comment period for this standard wraps up Monday, so make sure to submit your comment of support now.