Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Made Green in California (TM)?
California’s environmental and other regulations are helping to send manufacturers running, but the state can capitalize on its green image (and should streamline regulations) a new study by the Milken Institute says.
The study found that Golden State manufacturing was already contracting at an astounding rate even before the latest meltdown, and that it was lagging some other Western U.S. states which had seen small upticks in jobs for people who make stuff.
In particular, high-tech manufacturing fell to 485,900 jobs in 2007 in California from 629,400 in 2000, the report said.
The report described the state as having “a regulatory regime that uses limits on production and mitigation of environmental impacts in manufacturing processes rather than encouraging higher, smarter, more sustainable forms of production.”
from Ruben Ramirez:
Change lightbulbs. Save millions.
Norfolk Southern says it is working hard to reduce the rail operator's carbon footprint. CEO Wick Moorman says the company is in the midst of a 2-year, $10 million project to change the lighting in it's facilities...he says he's even changed the lightbulbs in his office. Click here to listen to how much money Norfolk is saving and what else it's doing to be more "green."
Wick from Tony Johansson on Vimeo.
Green jobs really on the way? New U.S. solar plants announced this week
Are those green jobs Obama has been promising already on their way? Really?
Despite a weak global economy and all the gloom that has brought to the solar industry of late, two solar companies this week quietly bucked the trend by announcing new manufacturing plants here in the United States.
On Monday, Hemlock Semiconductor said it would invest up to $3 billion to expand U.S. production of polysilicon, the key raw material used to make solar cells and semiconductors. That will include $1.2 billion to build a new facility in Clarksville, Tennesee, and up to $1 billion to expand its current operations in Hemlock, Michigan. The company said the investment will create 800 permanent positions at the plants (and a few hundred more once Clarksville is expanded) and 1,800 construction jobs.
