Fred2Blue

A fortnightly rant, FL-S style:

BALLSTON, Va. – Greetings from John McCain’s brother Joe’s favorite place - The People’s Republic of Arlington – where capitalism is alive and well.  And, after the pounding that the financial markets have taken, well, thank goodness for that.

The old-style A-Frame IHOP just 2 blocks from here is packed with hungry customers.  Business there is brisk.

We just finished setting up at the outdoor Ballston Arts & Crafts Market where each month, rain or shine, area crafters sell their handmade wares.  My wife’s shop – Metro Retro – is ready to go.  The air is crisp,  my wife’s handmade beaded jewelry looks great on display, and we hope the after the worst week in Wall Street history eager customers will, to paraphrase the FL-S, descend like Yankee locusts for a comfort purchase or two.

Here in Ballston, the natural gas-powered MetroBuses queued up on Wilson Blvd. are a sign of the times.  A reminder we’re going green.  And I am thankful for that.

For the longest time, long before most people recognized AIG or Lehman Brothers or Hank Paulson, several Fred2BlueLand  business leaders and I have been thinking about what it would take to achieve a sustainable business future for the Fredericksburg Region.  Many of you who read this blog frequently (don’t you have something better to do?) know that I advocate for a new green economy.  To understand my motivation, read Former Gov. and future U.S. Senator Mark Warner’s DNC keynote address. Excerpt:

You know, America has never been afraid of the future, and we shouldn’t start now. If we choose the right path, every one of these challenges is also an opportunity. Look at energy: if we actually got ourselves off foreign oil, we can make our country safer. We’ll start to solve global warming, and with the right policies, within 24 months, we’ll be building 100 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrid vehicles right here, with American technology and with American workers.

- Mark Warner

My compadres and I believe that with the cooperation of government, higher education, and the business community, we can bring thousands of green jobs to our region, such as: photovoltaic cell research, development and manufacturing to the City; agroforestry to Spotsy, green (LEED) building technology to Stafford; and sustainable farming and biofuels development (such as switchgrass farming) to the Northern Neck.

Despite the downturn in the economy, despite the pounding our 401ks and 403bs have taken this past quarter, our community needs to create a bold vision and a workable plan for going green.  To bring high-paying green jobs to the Fredericksburg area will require a tremendous amount of effort and leadership from our local electeds, academia, business leaders, and the Fredericksburg Area Chamber of Commerce.  Here are some of the things that I think need to happen:

EDUCATION

Virginia Tech, Univ. of Virginia, William & Mary, and other Virginia colleges and universities need to set up satellite campuses here in the Fredericksburg area.  There are plenty of available commercial buildings already erected that with minimal effort could be turned into regional education centers.  And high-end two-way video connections between the main and satellite campuses would make distance-learning here a snap.  Plus, there is already a growing demand for degree programs in Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Business.  Satellite campuses would allow more area undergrads to prepare for careers in the new green economy.  And Univ. of Mary Washington should include course curriculum, or better yet, degree programs in the science and business of sustainability.  Win/win.

A lynchpin to the new green economy are community colleges such as Germanna.  So-called green collar jobs require considerable technical knowledge that community colleges and career colleges are designed to offer.  And every effort should be made to expand the availability of green associate degree programs to as many area students that want them.

GOVERNMENT & LOCAL BUSINESS LEADERSHIP

Local government and business leadership need to agree on a comprehensive green vision.  And this is going to be extremely tough to accomplish, but it has to happen and soon.  We know how botched up Stafford’s Comp Plan Revision became, and both the “for” and “against” sides turned a process reliant on cooperation and negotiation into a Steel Cage Death Match.  What a mess.  

Futher, our local economic development agencies need to stop relying on the low hanging fruit that is defense contracting.  The Stafford Office of Economic Development and at least a couple of Stafford BOS members have focused all of their attention on defense, and a blind-eye to the new green economy.  That is foolish; they need to diversify their business development vision. 

There is no reason why the typically 4-3 Stafford BOS could not vote 7-0 to attract green technology and services business to the County.  Things would surely be different if you 7 board members worked on paid-commission! 

GREEN BUSINESS

According to Green Jobs: Towards desent work in a sustainabile low-carbon world, a study published in September 2008 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), there are several business sectors and industries that provide excellent long-term green job potential.  Among them:

• Renewable energy (such as electric motor vehicle fuel-cells);
• Agroforestry and Sustainable forestry management;
• LEED green building & retrofitting technology and services, and;
• Lighting.

If companies representing all or some of those industries laid stakes here, we’d surely draw in thousands of green support businesses and service bureaus, marketing agencies, and consultancies that too can provide a wide-variety of well-paying jobs.

The nice thing about green is that it is attitudinal.  Seemingly non-green businesses, such as GEICO in Stafford County, can embark on plans to achieve sustainability.  It is a modest example, but the auto insurer promotes a paperless billing program to their insured.  And McCormick & Company, the nationally-known spices company in suburban Baltimore just announced that Constellation Energy will build a 1 megawatt solar power system for the company’s Hunt Valley, Maryland spice mill and distribution center.

Those communities that don’t rally around a bold green future – and do so soon – will lose out.  They’ll be left in the dust.  

Let’s heed the call of our next U.S. Senator Mark Warner.  Let’s get busy and lead the Commonwealth in the development of green energy, green technology, and a long-lasting and prosperous green economy.