Manufacturing appears to be bottoming out

Commerce Department data for April manufacturing orders suggest that the downturn in manufacturing may be bottoming out. Perhaps more important than the April data is the trend that has seen increases in orders in two of the last three months, following a period of six months of continuous declines.

All industries did not benefit uniformly. Defense capital goods soared by 23.2% percent and demand for communications equipment rose by 6.9%, while machinery orders were up 2.7% and primary metals such as steel rose by 1%. Transportation remained volatile with motor vehicles up 2.7%, while commercial airplanes orders fell 6.8%.

While this good news may not signal the beginning of the recovery, it does offer hope that the worst may be over. This changed reality would suggest it is time to begin thinking about what investments should be considered to improve energy efficiency and productivity in manufacturing, particularly as energy prices have continued their upward trend, with oil prices currently above $60/bbl.

Baldwin Amendment Incorporated into ACES

On Tuesday, an amendment offered by Representative Tammy Baldwin (WI-2) was adopted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee into the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) of 2009 (co-sponsored by Reps. Waxman and Markey).

This amendment would establish Building Assessment Centers (BAC) to train students to identify and implement energy efficiency opportunities in existing residential, commercial, and institutional buildings. The BACs would be modeled after the highly successful Industrial Assessment Center program. Furthermore, the amendment would establish "Centers for Energy and Environmental Knowledge and Outreach" to coordinate activities between the IACs, BACs, and Clean Energy Application Centers (formerly CHP Regional Application Centers).

ACEEE played a key role in the development of this amendment and we are thrilled that it was adopted.

Watch video of the amendment's introduction and adoption here.

The full ACES bill (H.R. 2454) passed out of committee last night. Its text can be viewed here.

Disappointing DOE 2010 Budget Request

DOE released its budget request for FY2010. Unfortunately it is disappointing with respect to the Industrial Technologies Program. Overall, funding increases from $90 million for FY2009 to $100 million for FY2010. However, funding actually goes down for the Industries of the Future (industry specific), with distributed energy and industrial assessment centers level funded. The major increases are for deployment (e.g., SEN) and for cross-cutting research.

We will post some more details once we get a chance to analyze the request in greater detail.

Successful Senate Briefing on S. 661

On Monday, ACEEE and AMMEX hosted a briefing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on the need for robust appropriations of S. 661, Restoring America's Leadership in Manufacturing through Energy Efficiency Act of 2009. The briefing went quite well; there were many people in attendance, including several Senate staffers.

Neal Elliott of ACEEE, Chip Foley of AISI, Fred Quan representing GMIC, and Rick Boyd of Nova Precision Casting gave compelling statements as to the efficacy of R&D funding and public-private research and technology partnerships in the strengthening of American manufacturing and the potential for further decreases in manufacturing energy consumption and intensity.

We thank our speakers for helping out at the briefing, as well as those who were in attendance.