The manufacturing leap of faith
As posted to CleanTechBlog.com
Despite all the optimistic talk about green jobs in the advanced energy economy of the future, many manufacturers from the industrial heartland are deathly afraid of the potential passage of climate change legislation, concerned that cap-and-trade will increase their electricity costs and thereby make their operations less profitable.
A poster child of the heavy industry here in the Midwest is The Timken Company of Canton. Timken is arguably the world’s leading manufacturer of bearings for a wide range of applications and industries. Last week, Timken reported its second-quarter 2009 financials: a loss of $64.5 million.
The article in the Plain Dealer reporting on Timken’s results painted a very bleak picture – right up until the very last paragraph, in which a Timken spokesperson noted that the wind industry represented a “bright spot” for the company. Across town, Crain’s Cleveland Business was profiling Timken’s $200 million in recent investments to pursue more aggressively the “fast-moving” wind industry.
Of course, the “bright spot” afforded to Timken by the “fast-moving” wind sector will only remain attractive if it maintains momentum – something that is far more likely to occur if climate legislation is passed. On the other hand, it is all the other pieces of Timken’s business – the ones that are currently in the dumps – that many of those who oppose climate legislation are trying to protect.
It may be a leap of faith for a company to make a bold manufacturing commitment away from mature (in many cases, dying) industries of the past toward high-growth industries of the future such as renewable energy. But the results of Timken suggest that those who try to make this shift at least have a chance at pockets of profitability even in these trying times, while those who avoid or defer this transition may face a lingering period of weak and declining prospects.
Manufacturers who protest against the Waxman-Markey Bill may be spitting in the face of one of the few good manufacturing opportunities available to them in the coming decades. It’s time for the manufacturing world to build bridges to the future, rather than digging tunnels to the past.