Top Dems Say Green Jobs Could Jumpstart SC, US Economy

With manufacturing jobs rolling into South Carolina, some say green technologies are the ticket to adding more and keeping them.

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-SC, joined Pres. Barack Obama’s lead environmental advisor on a tour of a clean energy-focused factory in Columbia Monday.

Nancy Sutley chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality and came to South Carolina to highlight the president’s plans to implement clean energy policy, focusing on natural gas, and bring manufacturing jobs back to America as he outlined in his January State of the Union address.

Sutley and her entourage toured a Navistar plant that makes high-efficiency fuel injectors and pumps and even creates parts for the company’s 18-wheeler cab that can run entirely on either natural gas or diesel.

The plant opened two years ago and now employs 474 people. Sutley said it’s green manufacturing jobs like these that will jumpstart the economy.

“To make sure we have a healthy and prosperous future, manufacturing is really an important component of the American economy and again this was a facility that was slated to close, and in some cases these are jobs that were brought back from over seas,” Sutley said. “That really points to how valuable these manufacturing jobs are to our economy overall.”

Eric Tech, the president of Navistar’s engine group, said the company chose to locate the plant in South Carolina over other states and countries because of the help they got from state and federal government, as well as the educated work force.

“We’re controlling our destiny as a company and I think that translates into controlling our destiny as a country. We can’t rely on others for our technology to make our engines right,” Tech said.

Sutley bragged that last year the Obama administration passed the first fuel economy and green house gas emission standards for trucks and that prompts innovation, which requires new jobs, as well as preserving the environment.

“This is good for everyone,” Sutley said. “It saves people money because transportation costs go down, a small improvement in fuel economy for a diesel engine has huge ripples in our economy given how much diesel fuel we consume. Most of the oil that we import goes into transportation fuels. To the extent that we can make these truck engines more efficient and cleaner it’s good for our economy, it’s good for communities and it’s good for the planet.”

Obama also proposed giving companies that manufacture in America a tax cut and giving high-tech manufacturers double the tax break.

When asked what policies would help bring more high-tech, green jobs to South Carolina, Clyburn said the key is “in-sourcing jobs and exporting products” globally, by means of the Charleston harbor.

Clyburn said that Obama’s executive budget allots $3.5 million to deepen the Charleston harbor, on top of the $2.5 million announced several weeks ago. He said once the Panama Canal deepening in 2014 is completed, a more accommodating South Carolina port will let manufacturers distribute products quickly across the world.