Seeking some federal ‘green’

“It”™s all about jobs,” said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in her first words to a roundtable of business leaders invested in endeavors related to energy efficiency and renewable energy products.

While everyone attending the Oct. 7 meeting at Orange County Community College agreed green technology could be a powerful jobs creating engine,  Gillibrand heard was that those jobs will not materialize without help.  Among the ideas, were fundamental rethinking of governmental help to the startup green economy, including rewriting of procurement regulations, fomenting investment directly in renewable business and taking steps for preventing China from cornering the market through unfair trade practices.

“We have a tremendous ability to make things that are energy products, but what we need is just a kick start, because some of these things are relatively new,” said Stanley Kolt, head of research and development of Active Ventilation Products of Newburgh, a company holding 24 patents on products using wind power and solar power to help ventilate commercial and residential buildings.

He brought a sample for the senator to see, a rooftop ventilator fan with solar panels to drive the blades in hot weather, thus cooling the building interior, without requiring power from the grid, particularly valuable during the hottest days when the grid is most stressed and the cost of power at its highest. Kolt told the senator a business would see returns eight months after installing the vents.

Andy Neal, president and founder of Litgreen lighting, who built the light emitting diodes that now brighten the Walkway Over the Hudson, suggested the federal government lead the way in investing installation of LED lighting in public housing projects and parking lots nationally. “It doesn”™t sound glamorous but do you know how much energy that would save across the country?” he said, noting LEDs use about 80 percent less energy than standard fixtures. “And we could make it right here in Poughkeepsie.”

While conceding that America is not likely to subsidize is solar power industry to the tune of billions of dollars as China is doing, solar entrepreneurs such as Andrew B. Wilson, president and CEO of Spectrawatt in Fishkill said the US could do more to protest and alleviate the unfair trade practices.

Wilson said that among other factors driving up costs is a federal tax policy that taxes the use of ethanol by the company as if it were an alcoholic beverage, a sin tax, as opposed to treating their ethanol use as an industrial material. He raised the idea of job training for young workers in the skills needed for next generation solar power and silicon chip making. He said Spectrawatt has a skilled work force comprised of laid-off workers from IBM and other area chip makers,  but noted many are nearing retirement and  said new workers must beginning training now.

Rick Lewandowski, president and CEO of Prism Solar also called for greater efforts to thwart China”™s illegal  business practices. He also called for greater involvement in the financing from the federal government,  noting his company recently applied for a grant which would have 25 award recipients and which received some 2,500 applications.

Lance Matteson, president and CEO of Ulster County Development Corp.  called for reworking procurement regulations, which he said are not sophisticated enough to meet current realities. He said, for example, language should be added to reward use of local manufacturer”™s of products and attempts made to write regulations which recognize energy efficiency and environmental impact as benefits to be scored positively when officials decide where to spend public money.