My View of the HIA Executive Luncheon on “Clean Tech” – EXTENDED

I attended the Hauppauge Industrial association’s (HIA) Executive Lunch at their trade show last Thursday (5/21) where the theme of the day was “CleanTech: An Economic Driver for New York State.”  The mood of the day was decidedly optimistic as a range of Long Island political and industry leaders voiced the promise of green technologies as a boost for Long Island’s future.  Underneath the smiles, there were possibly some differences about the role of industry and government to help us “clean up our act” though no one in the panel really wanted to engage head on.

• First the politicians:
  • County Executive Steve Levy – opened with a rousing pep talk – “the glass is half full”
  • State Senator John J Flanagan – “just get rid of regulation” – hmm…   I think we’ve tried that.
  • Suffolk County Legislator John M. Kennedy – “Let’s build a solar panel manufacturing facility here in Hauppauge”
• Then the entertainment – Barbara A Branca (www.seagrant.org ) gave a rousing rendition of Neil Young’s “Rocking in the free world” – Change free to green and you’ll get the essence of the modifications.  By far and away the most courageous presenter afternoon.  Kudos to David Winchester (cleantechrocks.com for giving her the chance).
• Then the panel.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and try to summarize the views of the panelists.
  • David Brancaccio, Host & Executive Editor-NOW on PBS.  David gave a fairly impassioned pitch based on his travel and experience as a journalist. Paraphrasing – “now is the time for action” , “global warming is real, let’s deal with it” , “US needs to lead by example” , “Green Collar jobs are win (for home owner), win (for person doing the work), win (for the planet).”  David then left to catch a plane to Denmark where he is doing a show on how the Danish are creating a completely new vision for electric powered vehicles. (I’m not kidding)
  • Four guys from utilities – I’m going to get in trouble here – not all of them were actually from utilities, but they all have been for or with each other at LILCO, LIPA, National Grid, and Brooklyn Union for decades.  No offence to the hosts, but if I did not know that these were different people, it would be hard to tell.  I’m of course talking about Frank Murray New Chairman of NYSERDA, Richard Kessel the new Chairman for NYPA, Michael Deering, Vice President for Environmental Affairs at LIPA (a stand in for Ken Law), and Robert Catell (Vice Chairman of National Grid).
  • Anthony Joseph from New York Department of Labor – who crammed 10 min of slides into 5 minutes.  The summary – Green Jobs are not just good, and green, but they are a pathway out of poverty.  Maybe it’s 4 x win.
• Last some questions:
  • My favorite was about where we should expect the best job growth.  The answer summarized and condensed to “solar” and “home performance.”  I liked the answers, because my company does home performance and once that’s done we refer our customers to good solar companies.

The undercurrent was regarding the appropriate role of government in the classic environment vs. industrialist conflict.  We had politicians suggesting we do away with all regulations and environmentalists suggesting a carbon tax is the only way.  There was almost unanimity that our state should be supporting innovative energy research, but little agreement on how the government should use the carrot or the stick to shape policy that changes public or business behavior.  There is so much to be done.

Jay Best
www.greenauditusa.com