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Economic times are tough for all U.S. manufacturers, and many have had to lay off employees. But some advanced manufacturing facilities have opted not to fire anyone, event if it means switching their roles until production picks back up. You can count NEMA members among the companies that are keeping their workforces intact. In a radio segment today
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The federal government took steps recently to speed up the approval process for electricity transmission lines. Or at least, to speed up the permitting on federal lands. An agreement between the White House and eight federal agencies puts one agency in charge of the cumbersome process of approving transmission corridor permits -- a change from the traditional
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As evidence of NEMA's continued influence in international markets, the Commerce Department announced this week that our organization received one of five new Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP) awards for 2010-2013. This is NEMA's second MDCP award from Commerce -- the first, which runs from 2007-2010, was given for NEMA to promote
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" Bloom vows to boost manufacturing ," shouted the headline in the Detroit News last week. This should be significant, considering that Ron Bloom was tapped to be the senior counselor for manufacturing policy (aka, the manufacturing czar) by the president in early September. The article even observed that "Obama hopes to boost U.S. manufacturing
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Tom “The World is Flat” Friedman, noted NYTimes columnist, has launched a shot across America's bow. His recent column, “ The New Sputnik ,” outlines a future in which China goes green – and cleans our clock on innovation. If that happens, and the next innovation revolution occurs in China, the wealth that flows from
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Can the future be built in America? Business Week asks this question in an enlightening article this week -- and the answer is, "It depends." If we can't maintain our lead in large-scale high-tech manufacturing, don't expect future generations of Americans to experience anything close to the living standards that recent generations
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Stop me if you've heard me say this before: Buildings are the single largest user of electricity in the nation. According to the US Green Buildings Council , buildings account for 72% of electricity use in the United States. So if you're going to try to conserve energy in our society, buildings would be a great place to start. That's why
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Interesting proposal for an energy plan in the WaPo this week. David Crane, head of NRG Energy , observed that while visionary energy plans are nice to ponder -- take, for example, Al Gore's proposal to energize the entire country with 90-square-miles worth of solar panels in the Southwest desert -- Americans want a practical energy plan that will
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Finally, a form of health care reform that will save us money and lives. No, I'm not talking about the massive, complex, and costly bill that passed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee at the end of July. I'm talking about efforts by the Obama administration -- and a multitude of supporters, including NEMA -- to jump-start the transition
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An article in the latest issue of Renew Grid magazine (see page 5) adds to the chorus of concern about siting new transmission corridors. According to the article, a survey by NRG Systems of attendees at the recent American Wind Energy Association WINDPOWER conference shows that half of respondents cited transmission/interconnection issues as the single