Gee urges clean-energy push that creates jobs

Gee urges clean-energy push that creates jobs

Tuesday,  February 10, 2009 3:01 AM

By Jack Torry and Aofie Connors

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

WASHINGTON -- Declaring that "our nation's future is at issue," Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee said yesterday that government, industry and universities must develop cleaner-burning fuels, or "our nation will sputter to a halt."

In a speech at a Washington conference sponsored by the Brookings Institution, a research center, Gee endorsed a new Brookings report that calls for a major increase in federal spending to develop commercially viable clean energy that will not produce the greenhouse gases thought to cause global warming.

"We now have a groundswell of agreement: America's utter dependence on fossil fuels weakens us in critical ways," Gee said. "As supplies dwindle and our environment suffers potentially irreversible damage, we cannot sit idly by.

"I am fully determined that we will help reinvigorate our region's Rust Belt towns with green-collar jobs. American universities must apply our enormous resources leading this new industrial revolution."

The report was drafted under the supervision of James Duderstadt, former president of the University of Michigan. In addition to calling for more federal dollars, the report urges scientists at America's universities, industry and the federal government to pool efforts to develop the new technologies needed to produce clean energy.

Gee said a number of universities are working on clean-energy projects, but he said that "too much is occurring in isolation. Silo thinking will not pull us out of this crisis."

Instead, Gee said, America's universities "must capitalize on areas of mutual interest and greatest potential. Regional partnerships -- those proposed in this report -- make absolute sense."

President Barack Obama has called for more federal assistance for clean energy in his proposed plan to stimulate the nation's economy. The economic stimulus that the Senate probably will approve today includes $40 billion for energy programs, including $8.5 billion to subsidize loans for alternative-energy projects.

The conference was attended by Gee; Duderstadt; Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; and Jeffrey Wadsworth, president and chief executive officer of Battelle in Columbus.

Brown reiterated a theme he has used since his campaign for the Senate in 2006: that cleaning the environment can produce tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.

"Every commercial-scale wind turbine built uses the equivalent amount of steel as 225 midsize cars," Brown said. "Every time you turn on a light bulb powered by solar panels, you use enough glass to replace your car windshield."

jtorry@dispatch.com

Are you happy with your location?

The Pew Research Center recently published a study that found "For Nearly Half of America, The Grass is Greener Somewhere Else." "This latest report explores a range of attitudes related to where Americans live, where they would like to live and why. It finds that most city dwellers think the grass would be greener in a suburb, small town or rural area. But urbanites aren't alone in feeling mismatched with their surroundings. More than four-in-ten residents of suburbs, small towns and rural areas also report they would prefer to live in a different type of community."

Not only did the study examine why some people are dissatisfied with their location, finding that political views can play a factor in this,  it also ranked cities that were deemed more livable than others. According to the study, most Americans prefer to live in the West or in the South while Midwestern cities such as Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit were voted the least popular.

This poses a large problem for cities in Ohio as we continuously see our youth and entrepreneurs leave for more climate friendly cities. It is vital that we change of our image and the way we do business in order to show the world that Ohio offer a multitude of lifestyles that fit their politcal, economic and cultural needs.

What will a federal stimulus package mean for Ohio?

The Hannah News Service, Inc. released an article,White House: Ohio to Gain or Save More Than 140,000 Jobs from Stimulus, on February 5, 2009 which outlined the status of the Federal Stimulus package, it was passed in the House and is currently delayed by skeptical Republicans, and the benefits of the package for Ohio.

"For Ohio, that analysis predicts the creation or saving of 141,700 jobs over the next two years in a range of industries from clean energy to health care, with more than 90 percent in the private sector.

More than 4.5 million workers would receive a pay tax cut of up to $1,000, and 666,000 out-of-work Ohioans would get an additional $100 a month in unemployment insurance benefits.

Other benefits, according to President Barack Obama’s administration, include:

- 128,000 families would be eligible for a new $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college.

- At least 369 schools would receive money to help modernize facilities. "

Both U.S. Senator Brown and Gov. Ted Strickland are urging for the passage of the stimulus package.

The full document released by the White House is available at www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/White_House_Releases_Additional_State1.pdf

For more news on the Stimulus package check out the article Estimates of Ohio's benefits from stimulus plan vary widely.

Cities are not the only ones suffering: A look into American Suburbs

The Restoring Prosperity to Ohio initiative is a place-based effort which advocates targeted investment in Ohio's assets in order to fully leverage their economic potential. Some people mistakingly believe that the focus of this initiative is on the city centers. While it is important to reviltalize Ohio's cities, the Restoring Prosperity initiative also realizes that many of Ohio's suburbs are facing similar issues. In order to better understand the problems and opportunities in America's suburbs check out the Newsweek article, The Suburban Challenge, by the Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley of the Metropolitan Policy Program, Brookings.

Smart Growth: What does it look like?

Greater Ohio talks about Smart Growth and land use planning. However, for people unfamiliar with the term, it is hard to conceptualize. Well no more. The Natural Resource Defense Council has completed a case study, Picturing Smart Growth, that shows what cities could look like if smart growth principles were applied. Basically, it uses Photoshop to apply smart growth principles to existing sites. It is a great resource to show people how some place (similar to their environments) could transform over time into more friendly environments.  Check it out!

We need to take care of all areas of Ohio

Ohio Senator John Carey wrote an article in January's newspaper to first, to express hope with the new dynamics in the Ohio General Assembly and the election of Armond Budish as the Speaker, second, to give thanks to the Administration for their efforts to ease the burden for rural Ohioans with the closing of the DHL Plant in Wilmington, Ohio and third to outline his some of his concerns with the Administration's redevelopment efforts.

Senator Carey recognizes that Ohio's big cities are the key to the economic vitality of the state however he also believes that focus on these cities should not come at the expense of the rural areas. Two activities that lead him to believe that this may be the case were the absence of representation from Appalachia Ohio on the 21st Century Transportation Priorities Task Force created by ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation) as well as the recent Job Ready Sites program grants which left out funding for project located south of I-70 and east of I-71.

Senator Carey's concerns are valid and felt by numerous Ohioans. As the Restoring Prosperity to Ohio Initiative progresses, we have become aware of similar sentiments in multiple sectors of Ohio; townships, the agricultural community, Appalachia Ohio and even more urban areas, such as Piqua. Restoring Prosperity is a place-based, however, we believe that the state policy recommendations put forward will help Ohioans at every level and we have made strong efforts to increase our outreach to different sectors in Ohio to make sure they too, can contribute their input and become part of the effort to Restore Ohio.

Marion Rotary Club works to revitalize its city

After Greater Ohio's presentation to the Marion Rotary Club in January 2009, the club decided to make to heed the recommendations of teh Restoring Prosperity to Ohio Initiative by investing in its assets. The group made a donation to the Marion Palace Theatre in order to enable needy children to participate in events there. This is one example of the many ways communities can revitalize their cities. All it takes it some community pride, a realistic view of the assets you possess and a strategy to leverage those assets.

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