And Then You Can Make a Movie About Building Planes!

If you haven’t been watching closely, you’ve missed the national trend of turning large industrial spaces into movie studios. This isn’t a new idea by any stretch, but unfortunately there’s a lot more industrial space these days, like abandoned automobile manufacturing facilities in Michigan. But it hits a little closer to home when you see that LA is making movie studios out of old Boeing Commercial Airline buildings.

What Will Alan Mulally Say at the Prosperity Partnership Luncheon?

So, like I mentioned, Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally is going to be the keynote speaker at the Prosperity Partnership Fall Luncheon on November 13 (register now before it gets sold out!). And what’s even cooler is that he doesn’t do speeches, so it’s going to be town hall format; whatever people want him to talk about, he’ll just be riffing, like a mix between Phil Donahue and Drew Carey on Who’s Line Is It Anyway (ok, maybe not exactly like that). So, given that it’s open season, what is he going to talk about?

Green Housing, Not to Be Confused with Clean Housing)

You know, cause even if you use clean energy for residential power, calling it a clean house makes people feel like they have to vacuum more often, which uses extra energy, making it less clean. The irony!

Anyway, I was making a presentation this morning on clean energy in the ARRA, and I made the point that a lot of the money for energy is not just in Department of Energy grant, but in places like Department of Housing. Ta-da! And some pretty high tech stuff, too.

Of course, again, the real wins come when all of those solar panels and biofuels are provided and installed by local companies. Another reason why we need to keep coordinated on who gets what stimulus money and what products and services our growing clean tech companies are commercializing.

Here Comes Carbon Capture (and Mole People?)

Here’s the thing about carbon capture, which is about to go live in West Virginia. I’m slightly concerned that the mole people who live deep underground are going to get pissed off, and come to the surface world to do battle with us. Either that, or some other unintended consequences, like polluted drinking water or earthquakes:

Asked whether the injections of carbon dioxide could increase the frequency or magnitude of the small earthquakes that are common in the area, an E.P.A. official said it seemed unlikely.

Ah, “unlikely.”  Everyone’s favorite palliative. 

SEED Withers in the Ground

Or some such gardening allegory. Anyway, most of you probably saw that the Port of Bremerton pulled the plug on the Kitsap SEED Project, the long-discussed, never quite off the ground dream of a clean technology incubator. The project was actually at one point pretty high on the regional agenda, and the Economic Development District here at the PSRC recommended them for U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) funding, which they got but never used.

What’s the Difference Between a Propeller and a Wind Turbine?

They’re both fan-shaped things that push wind to create energy, just one uses it to generate propulsion, the other makes electricity. Only one can be used to get the bad guy during a fight with Indiana Jones, though.

So, of course it makes sense that former aerospace manufacturers are turning to wind turbines as a way to put their capacity to work. There’s actually two stories in between the lines here, though:

Have You Driven a Ford Lately?

I still can’t get over how cool it is that Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mullaly is going to be the keynote speaker at the Prosperity Partnership Fall Luncheon on November 13.  But it’s not just the fact that he used to work in the region and now he’s in the Time 100. It’s that he can talk about a major national economic shift that has the potential to be huge in the central Puget Sound in two ways:

Acronyms in Your Rearview Mirror May Be More Awkward Than They Seem

It’s a little known fact that the US Congress loves acronyms. Or maybe it’s a well known fact, what with ARRA, TARP, etc. When I was working on the hill, we were dealing with the CHIMP Act (Chimpanzee Health Improvement Maintenance and Protection), which set up a retirement system for lab primates.

More Cars Sold in China Than U.S.

Here’s a stat that snuck up on me. 

“For the first quarter of the year, 2.7 million cars were sold in China – besting U.S. sales of 2.2 million for the first time to become the world’s largest car market.”

There are many ways to look at this, two of which are:   a) good God, there goes our efforts on climate change; b) maybe China can pull us out of the recession. 

The CNN article tells us there are 100 Chinese automakers hoping to take advantage of the growing market, not to mention the multinational companies and government-owned entities like GM and Chrysler. A growing Chinese market would help with over capacity of cars out in the world. But, it would be even better if those cars were environmentally friendly. The Chinese are pushing for electric cars and Warren Buffet’s favorite car company is going electric.

But, most of the electricity in China is generated by coal. In other words, it’s a mixed up, muddled up, crazy world we live in. On the other hand, our region’s clean tech sector may stand to benefit.  Like I say, there’s a lot of ways to look at this.

That Makes Me Feel Recovered Already!

You always hear folks talking about how Washington is on its own economic cycle…usually six months later going down and six months later coming back up. And the down cycle part seemed to be relatively accurate this time around. But some people think that we’re going to actually be one of the first back out!

Predicting economic cycles is about 75% guesswork, so I’m not sure I’m going to go put all my money in Boeing and Microsoft stock this afternoon, but I think what’s interesting about these predictions are some of the underlying assumptions in them. Essentially, Moody’s Economy.com thinks we have two things going for us: a housing market that hasn’t taken as much of a hit as other places and a great tech sector (how great is it?) which they think will lead the recovery.

Policy vs. Technology

You know that old saw, “What’s that got to do with the price of rice in China?” I think that the new one is “How is this affected by the price of a barrel of oil?”

Lots of talk these days about whether you can truly legislate energy policy. And we’re bombarded with examples of failure, even in our own state. Turns out that it’s difficult to get past the old law of supply and demand, especially when it comes to technological innovation.

Of course, a lot of times energy policy attempts to shift supply and demand. I mean, what is a mandated minimum levels of alternative energy generation and use but literally creating additional markets. So, why doesn’t it work? Business and science people will tell you that some of it is reliability, that even when government says it will commit to purchasing a set amount over a set period of time, the market can’t trust that enough because of the changing political winds. And some people might say that rushing technology just doesn’t always work; innovation is a messy process of trial and error and just saying that something will be ready to go in 2020, for example, doesn’t make it true.

The reason that the price of oil trumps alternative energy innovation, though, is really that the government commitment isn’t enough. I mean, it’s nice to mandate 20% of Washington Ferry fuel from alternative energy, but that’s a drop in the barrel of world fuel consumption. I’m not sure even the U.S. government is willing to commit the resources that it would truly take to purchase enough alternative fuels. Which is why we start getting into “artificial” ways of ensuring higher gas prices, like cap and trade or carbon tax or (my personal favorite) price floors. That’s where policy seems to maybe have a shot of working, and it looks like we’re getting closer to finding out one way or the other.

And By Clunkers, I Mean Hummers

As an economics nerd, what’s not to love about “cash for clunkers.”

People get new cars that are more fuel efficient, which saves the environment stimulates the auto industry at the same time! Slap a Buy American amendment on that bad boy, and hello Chrystler-Fiat!

Assuming that Chrystler-Fiat counts as an American car company…and that Chrystler makes a car that gets more than 22 mpg?

Just Like the Village People Predicted

Where can you find investment in clean technology? In the Navy!

People have been pointing out for a while now that the U.S. military is an excellent source of innovation in clean technology. Not only because of Congress’ 2007 mandate that Department of Defense agencies generate at least 25 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2025, but also because it makes sense in terms of the energy efficiency, cost reduction and flexibility that the military needs to conduct its activities.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have one of the highest concentrations of military personnel in the entire country (The State of Washington ranks seventh in the nation for the number of military personnel claiming residence in the state.) So, in addition to the billions of dollars in economic impact that the military presence in the Puget Sound generates, there is real opportunity to connect our state’s thriving clean technology industry cluster with the Department of Defense’s gigantic budget for research and development.

The chair of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce just identified investment in clean tech as one of his top recommendations for helping our economy out of the current downturn. The state doesn’t have a lot of money right now, as you may have heard, and a lot of venture capital has dried up, so it’s time to get creative in finding funding, and this may be a great opportunity.

Elevator Music

Your humble Prosperity Partnership blogger is on the Abu Dhabi/Dubai International Study Mission. These “traveling universities” have a life of their own.  David Allen, Executive Vice President at McKinstry, was in the elevator of our hotel in Abu Dhabi talking to a guy from Australia with a company doing similar work. The two shared information about their companies (McKinstry, of course, is famous for being visited and cited by President Obama for building energy efficient buildings) and next thing you know Allen receives an email from the Australian business person inviting him to dinner when David is back in Abu Dhabi because he thinks they can do business there. Not bad for an elevator conversation.

You can follow the progress of the trip at the Trade Alliance and Chamber’s Abu Dhabi/Dubai Trip Diary.

Hello from Abu Dhabi

Not much time to talk – in a presentation on clean tech and the Masdar City project – but wanted to check in from the Chamber’s UAE study mission. In Abu Dhabi now, and it’s not only absolutely fabulous but also so relevant. There are so many Puget Sound/UAE connections already (Boeing, Microsoft, UW, etc.) and so many similarities in terms of their economic development strategy. Their Economic Vision 2030 is a lot like the Prosperity Partnership’s Regional Economic Strategy, not only in terms of the fact that it’s a cluster based/foundation supported strategy, but the specific focuses: clean tech, tourism, aerospace, education, arts and culture…they’re shifting from a resource based economy to a knowledge economy. Of course, they have almost unlimited funds and limited public process to get it done…