Move to create clean-energy jobs now

By Eric Rebhan

Special to The Vindicator

When you look out on the floor of our manufacturing plant in Hubbard, with sparks flying from welding equipment on large generators, you might not think we’re right in the middle of America’s hottest high-tech industry.

But you’d be wrong.

The gritty industrial work we do here in the manufacturing belt is a key part of America’s growing clean energy economy. When you hear politicians and others talk about the clean energy sector, your mind may go directly to wind turbines and solar panels, but the real clean energy economy is much larger and more diverse.

First, clean energy encompasses all of our domestic sources of clean energy, such as biomass, nuclear energy and natural gas – including Ohio’s newly discovered resources. Second, the clean energy economy takes in thousands of supply chain companies that manufacture high-tech components — windmill gearboxes, cement for cooling towers, glass for solar panels and steel for just about everything. These companies employ workers in every state, touching thousands of communities across America. Communities like ours here in Ohio.

At Warren Fabricating & Machining Corporation we manufacture large generators for natural gas electric turbines destined for new clean-burning natural gas plants. We’ve been here in the community for 50 years and have grabbed the opportunity provided by the country’s gradual transition to cleaner sources of fuel.

Natural gas is key

Natural gas plants are certainly part of that switch: they burn almost 50 percent cleaner than older, dirtier coal-fired plants, and use America’s most abundant domestic fuel. The more gas-fired plants we construct, the more toxic chemicals we take out of the air and the more we improve our economy while keeping consumers’ electric bills low now and for years to come.

But the clean energy economy’s most important benefit — especially right now — is good paying jobs. America is still in the midst of an unemployment crisis, especially in traditional manufacturing regions. Speeding up our transition to clean energy puts people back to work when we need it most.

Washington must lead

So what’s needed to fully unleash these clean energy jobs? Business certainty. For years, utilities, energy developers and manufacturers have been waiting for Washington to provide a long-term road map for the America’s energy future. By failing to do so, our political leaders have left billions of private investment dollars on the sidelines.

Luckily there’s a policy on the table that would set Ohio and America on a clean energy path without any new government spending. It’s called the Clean Energy Standard, or CES, and it works by setting a national clean energy target and giving the private sector the certainty it needs to get there.

These rules of the road can finally help America get to work on building a new, 21st century energy system, and in turn launch a new age of manufacturing here in the U.S. Our old, dirty power plants are bound to give way to cleaner forms of energy at some point, so why not speed up this transition and reap the economic benefits of doing so now instead of later?

As Ohio’s members of Congress consider jobs legislation this fall, policies like a Clean Energy Standard should be front and center. This company at the heart of the clean energy supply chain sure hopes it will be.

Eric Rebhan, is chairman and CEO of Warren Fabricating & Machining Corp., a manufacturer specializing in large steel fabrications and heavy machining. It services power generation, surface mining equipment, steel mills and large press manufacturers. It has locations in Hubbard, Warren and Niles.