Manufacturing & Technology News articles from January 2007

Manufacturing & Technology News archives from January 2007

Michigan Tooling Association will broaden its reach to take on NAM.(A STIRRING NATIONAL DEBATE OVER TRADE)
January 5, 2007... The 670-member Michigan Tooling Association is taking a great leap forward and is planting itself on the national landscape. Driven by growing resentment among manufacturing business owners over the escalating trade deficit and the perceived...

'Truck stop politics' Washington oligarchy ignores working class at its peril.(A STIRRING NATIONAL DEBATE OVER TRADE)
January 5, 2007... A major political shift driven by manufacturing workers directly impacted by the loss of jobs is taking place in the country. Politicians ignore this growing movement at their peril, according to the leader of a successful grass-roots effort to...

EPI to make trade recommendations from workers' POV.(A STIRRING NATIONAL DEBATE OVER TRADE)
January 5, 2007... The Economic Policy Institute will weigh in on globalization policy on January 11 with a meeting and the first of a series of policy recommendations for the new Democratic Congress. The paper, titled "Globalization That Works for Working...

'Progressive' CEOs to enter globalization policy fray.(A STIRRING NATIONAL DEBATE OVER TRADE)
January 5, 2007... A group of 12 "progressive" CEOs led by Leo Hindrey, former CEO of TCI and Global Crossing, is developing a series of congressional proposals aimed at combating the growth of corporate greed and influence in the U.S. political system. The...

Skills commission issues education warning.(A STIRRING NATIONAL DEBATE OVER TRADE)
January 5, 2007... The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, backed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, issued its first report in December, declaring that the standard of living in the United States is "jeopardized" by a...

Enthusiasm grows for grass-roots coalition aimed at ending multinational control of trade Agenda.
January 5, 2007... A coalition of farmers, domestic manufacturers, labor officials and others wanting to change U.S. trade policy is getting closer to launch. Principals involved in the group, which has adopted the name "Trade Reform Coalition" as its working...

Federal aeronautics R&D policy does not address budget woes.
January 5, 2007... The United States government has issued its first ever strategic plan for aeronautics research and development. But the document, requested by Congress after aeronautics budgets have been cut by almost half over the past decade, does not...

American use of energy will be a lot different over next the 50 years, says Shell Oil CEO.
January 5, 2007... Ethanol will play only a small role in solving the U.S. energy supply crisis, according to John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co. "The issue with corn-based and sugar-based ethanol from a Shell point of view is that if we as a company are...

Guest editorial--Booz Allen executives survey the 2007 industrial landscape.(Company overview)
January 5, 2007... On balance, 2006 was a good year for industrial manufacturers, chiefly because of ongoing improvements in efficiency. There were plenty of challenges, however, with sharply rising energy prices, escalating interest rates, a decline in factory...

'Why should Democrats be for more trade deficits'?(QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: REP. MARCY KAPTUR D-OHIO)(Interview)
January 5, 2007... Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's return to the Nation's Capital last month for a meeting with incoming House Democrats was far from triumphant. Invited to give a solo briefing on what Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi billed as "the need for...

Calendar of upcoming manufacturing & technology events.(Calendar)
January 5, 2007... January 11-12 Design and Public Policy: Markets for Congestion and Carbon Trading, University of Essex, UK, http:www.essex.ac.uk/eccc/. January 15 Aligning Lean Initiatives, Carlsbad, Ca.: http://www.ame.org. January 16-18 Improving...

GAO: anti-counterfeiting system isn't working well.
January 5, 2007... The federal government's effort to stop illegal counterfeited goods from entering the U.S. market is confusing and largely ineffective, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study. The federal government has two projects aimed...

2008: I've got the horse right here.
January 5, 2007... "The race is on," declared Newsweek, before most of the presumptive candidates for the 2008 presidential election had declared their candidacies. Certainly before any of them have come out with categorical positions, crafted a stump speech, or...

Europe to fund individual researchers through NSF-style program.
January 23, 2007... The European Union has created its own version of the National Science Foundation, funded at $1 billion a year, to invest in innovative research. The European Research Council has become the first pan-European funding agency for frontier...

One last look at the midterm election: Democrats rode into office on strength of trade & middle-class economic issues.
January 23, 2007... NAFTA and CAFTA are alive and well, and have become a potent political force. "Right after the CAFTA vote [last year], prominent pundits said it was not going to play a role in any [congressional electoral] race," says Todd Tucker, research...

GAO finds federal commitment to energy R&D drops by 85 percent.
January 23, 2007... The Department of Energy's budget for energy research and development fell by 85 percent between 1978 and 2005, according to the Government Accountability Office. Despite repeated calls for energy independence, the United States has become even...

NAM president meets with domestic manufacturers and defends NAM's policy-making process.
January 23, 2007... The National Association of Manufacturers continues to confront a group of domestic manufacturing members upset with a perceived lack of willingness to pursue their interests over those of large multinationals. At a January 9 meeting in...

Mfg. jobs continue long-term decline.
January 23, 2007... It was another down year for manufacturing employment, despite the fact that the economy created 1.8 million new jobs. The total number of manufacturing workers dropped by 72,000 in 2006, and settled at 14.15 million, according to the Bureau of...

Mfg. task force in Congress gears up.
January 23, 2007... The House Task Force on Manufacturing is gearing up for operations during the new session of Congress. The group, hosted by the Northeast Midwest Institute in Washington, D.C., has a new co-chair, Rep. James Walsh (R-N.Y.), who joins the three...

Steel industry tells DOD that health of U.S. Mfg. sector is essential for national security.
January 23, 2007... The U.S. Department of Defense is dependent on a healthy commercial steel industry for the production of its many weapon systems, according to the major U.S. steel trade associations and the United Steelworkers Union. "If we continue to lose...

EIA estimates costs of a cap-and-trade emissions system.
January 23, 2007... A federally mandated cap-and-trade system for regulating greenhouse gas emissions could generate tens of billions of dollars for the federal government but could be costly to consumers, according to the Energy Information Administration. A...

Emissions legislation is popular in Congress.
January 23, 2007... Eleven Democratic senators have introduced legislation calling for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below their 1990 levels. The Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act introduced by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee...

NOAA describes warmest year on record.
January 23, 2007... Last year was the warmest on record for the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Data Center. The 2006 annual average temperature was 55 degrees F, or 2.2 degrees F. above the 20th...

Retaining employees is a growing challenge.
January 23, 2007... Only one out of four employees is happy with their job and the remaining three are looking for a new one, according to a survey by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM). Twelve percent of employees voluntarily quit their jobs in 2006,...

Ehlers dusts off Mfg. extension legislation.
January 23, 2007... Manufacturing legislation that has gone nowhere for the past two years has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives. The Manufacturing Technology Competitiveness Act (HR-255) is intended to help address "long-term problems facing our...

This might be the year for earmark reform.
January 23, 2007... Legislative earmarks, which tallied almost $60 billion last year, might soon see the light of day prior to their congressional approval. An amendment offered by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) requiring disclosure of all earmarks on the Internet 48...

Bush doesn't give up on Dudley nomination.
January 23, 2007... The Bush administration has resubmitted to Congress the nomination of Susan Dudley to be the nation's top regulatory official. Dudley, a principal with the conservative Mercatus Center at the George Mason University, was nominated last year to...

Consumer group targets big corporations.(Website overview)
January 23, 2007... A new Web site has opened to provide consumers with another list of "corporate America's worst players and most destructive practices." The site, www.responsibleshopper.org, is run by Co-op America and profiles the ethical practices of more...

Americans avoid buying American automobiles for the wrong reasons.
January 23, 2007... American auto purchasers avoid Ford, GM and Chrysler cars due to the perceived lack of quality, according to a study by J.D. Power and Associates commissioned by the Detroit News. Seventy percent of Americans not wanting to purchase an...

R&D projects for shipbuilding.
January 23, 2007... The National Shipbuilding Research Program has selected 16 new projects aimed at saving taxpayers money in the naval shipbuilding industry. The organization, a collaborative venture between NAVSEA and 11 major U.S. shipyards, is funding...

Guest editorial: Rep. Duncan Hunter on unfair trade.(Editorial)
January 23, 2007... When we got into World War II, our allies and our adversaries realized very quickly that America had an arsenal of democracy. We had a great industrial base. We had an industrial base in which our major automakers were able to turn immediately...