The Feds Take On Electronic Trash

Washington, D.C. – Three weeks ago, Sen. John Thune, the South Dakota Republican who in 2004 unseated Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, held his first hearing as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Superfund and Waste Management. The topic: electronic waste, something Thune confessed he wasn’t too aware of previously.

“I had heard of e-mail and e-commerce,” Thune mused. “I guess it makes sense that we have e-waste.”

For business, what makes sense is that Congress pay more attention to e-waste now. Speaking on behalf of the Consumer Electronics Retailers Coalition, an industry group representing the likes of Circuit City Stores and Target, Michael Vitelli of Best Buy said his group favored “a national solution to the issue of electronic waste.” Vitelli noted that in the first half of 2005, 50 e-waste bills were introduced by 30 state and local legislatures.

The legislative flurry underscores the significance of the problem. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office warned that 100 million computers, monitors and televisions become obsolete each year. In those devices lurks nasty stuff such as lead, mercury and cadmium.

Full story at Forbes.com

Revving Up Fuel Cells

On a drizzly day in Washington last week, tourists lining up for a visit to the Capitol could catch a glimpse of something else they probably don’t see every day: a bunch of cars powered by fuel cells. Parked just outside the U.S. Botanic Garden, the three vehicles had company reps hovering nearby to pop the hood, answer questions and even take gawkers out for a spin.

The cars–from General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Nissan Motor –were part of a technology showcase sponsored by the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, an industry group. Fuel cells, in case you’re wondering, are devices that use a chemical reaction, not combustion, to generate power. It’s basically the reverse of your grade-school electrolysis experiment–instead of separating hydrogen and oxygen with electricity, hydrogen and oxygen are combined in the fuel cell to produce electricity and water.

Up the Hill in the Cannon House office building, the U.S. Fuel Cell Council had also pulled together a mini trade convention for the benefit primarily of members of Congress and staff. In a large conference room, dozens more company reps–from the likes of General Electric, Delphi, and Ballard Power Systems –showed off their employers’ fuel cell wares.

Full story at Forbes.com

Is Uncle Sam Leaving Children Behind?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Three weeks ago, 858 people showed up in Washington for a conference, hosted by the Consortium for School Networking, on the use of technology in K-12 education. The mood at the event? “Pretty somber,” reports participant Bruce Wilcox, chief executive of an education technology venture called Project Inkwell.

Weighing on the group: money troubles. For one, concerns simmered about the fate of E-Rate, or the Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism. The U.S. government program, funded by fees added to phone bills and devoted to wiring schools to the Internet, has been wracked by charges of fraud and mismanagement.

A more immediate worry was President George W. Bush’s proposed education budget for fiscal 2006. The budget, released in February, proposes eliminating a program known as Enhancing Education Through Technology. Created as part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, EETT doles out grants for integrating technology into schools. The program received $500 million in fiscal 2005, down from $700 million in 2002.

Full story at Forbes.com

GM’s Intelligent Advocates

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, the Bush Administration showed its intention to put the screws on domestic discretionary spending with a budget cutting or shutting down 150 federal programs. With such a clampdown afoot, can federal funding for “Deer Avoidance Research” survive? Sure, if Neil Schuster has any say in the matter.

“We have a vision,” says Schuster, president of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA). “Zero fatalities and zero delays.”

Maybe it’s all the time they and their staff spend stuck in Washington traffic, but members of Congress seem to like that message. Funding for intelligent transportation systems stands a decent chance of more than doubling to $3.7 billion when Congress gets around to passing a gigantic highway and transportation spending bill.

Full story at Forbes.com

Cradle To Cradle To Washington

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last month’s U.S. election results elicited the predictable laments from the enviro crowd. “The re-election of President George W. Bush means that polluters will enjoy four more years of lax enforcement,” moaned the Natural Resources Defense Council.

But the political winds don’t seem to ruffle one prominent environmentalist: William McDonough, a 53-year-old architect and man dubbed a “hero for the planet” by Time magazine in 1999. “We don’t focus on politics, because they come and go,” McDonough said in a phone interview last week, adding, “Republicans are very attracted to what we do.”

Indeed, last January, McDonough was back at the White House, where he had previously accepted an environmental award from President Bill Clinton, expounding his ideas on ecologically sustainable design to a meeting of government officials arranged by Bush’s Office of Management and Budget. “We’ve met with many of the departments and agencies many times since,” McDonough says.

The subject of those meetings is what McDonough calls “Eco-effectiveness” and “Cradle to Cradle Design.” In short, it’s an effort to refashion architecture and industry so that they emulate the ecosystems found in the natural world.

Full story at Forbes.com

Red Tape As A Stock-Picking Tool

WASHINGTON, D.C. – For the past two years, the World Bank and its private-sector lending arm, the International Finance Corp., have scanned the globe to measure the extent and economic impact of business regulation. Their latest study, titled “Doing Business in 2005,” no doubt makes great reading for the policy wonk set. We think it has some merit for stock pickers too.

Why’s that? For one, the notion of a country’s “business climate” may sound a bit fuzzy, but it certainly carries weight in the markets. Look at the 163-point jump the Dow took last week once it appeared President George W. Bush had his reelection wrapped up.

Also, at the very least, knowing the best and worst locales for business can help you narrow your choice of overseas investments. On U.S. exchanges alone you can find 2,000 non-U.S. firms hailing from 70 countries.

Full story at Forbes.com

De-Sprawling The Highway Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Among the big-ticket items it didn’t get around to this fall, Congress failed to finish work on a six-year transportation spending package. Even a $299 billion compromise between House and Senate versions, 37% bigger than the 1998 highway bill and reportedly backed by the White House, fell short of coming to a vote.

Good riddance, according to Don Chen, executive director of the anti-sprawl group Smart Growth America. “We prefer extension of the debate to passage of a bad bill,” he says. “We’re still looking to see a bill that actually carries out the wishes of the American people.”

For Chen and colleagues, those wishes are embodied in the goals of the “smart growth” movement: to reduce traffic, preserve open space and develop communities where people can get to work and leisure without their cars. In policy terms, that means favoring repair of existing roads over new construction, creating incentives for transit-oriented real estate development, and more funding for mass transit and programs to encourage walking and biking.

This is no easy agenda to push at the federal level, especially given legislators’ historic fondness for laying pavement. But as far as the highway bill goes, smart growth proponents at least have some time to press their case. Two weeks ago, President George W. Bush extended existing transportation spending laws through the end of next May.

Full story at Forbes.com

Airlines: Too Much Security?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just after the 9/11 Commission released its final report at the end of July, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee issued a press release touting security-related legislation it had promoted since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Under the heading of “aviation security,” the release cited the laws that created the Transportation Security Administration, as well as those that armed commercial and cargo pilots. The Committee also mentioned bills that would protect aircraft against shoulder-fired missiles and mandate uniform biometric identification standards for law enforcement and airports.

“This Committee will continue to move legislation and improve our ability to secure the traveling public,” Chairman Donald Young (R-Alaska) promised.

Last week, the airlines’ industry group dispatched a representative to testify at the House Aviation Subcommittee’s hearing on the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations. The message: let’s not get carried away.

Full story at Forbes.com

Highway Lobby: Smooth Operators

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Despite Congress’ fitful efforts to renew a multiyear federal transportation bill, the highway lobby has once again proved its reputation as one of Washington’s most effective operators. How effective? Think $52 billion.

Since 1991, funding for highway and mass transit has been rolled up into a giant package reauthorized every six years. The existing law, a $218 billion program known as Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), was enacted in 1998. It expired last September.

Things haven’t been pretty since. Congress has sent President George W. Bush no less than five extensions of TEA-21 to keep money flowing to federally funded transportation projects. In February and April, respectively, the Senate and House passed their differing versions of the reauthorization bill. Members of a conference committee charged with reconciling the House and Senate bills have been at work since early June.

The big holdup: money. In November, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee proposed a generous package totaling $375 billion, with a hike in fuel taxes as a possible way to pay for it.

But the tax-averse House ultimately settled on a more modest $275 billion version of the bill. The Senate came in at $318 billion. The Bush Administration, smarting from charges of fiscal profligacy, was the stingiest, with a $247 billion proposal–and it backed that lower number with a rare veto threat.

Just before legislators left for their August recess, however, a flurry of negotiations took place. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, offered up a $301 billion compromise. Two days later, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman William Thomas, R-Calif., offered a $299 billion proposal, which he said had White House backing. The conference committee adjourned for the break without acting on either arrangement.

But the highway crowd can tentatively declare victory: $299 billion is a long way from the $247 billion line in the sand that the Bush Administration had originally drawn.

Full story at Forbes.com

In Search of Fair Business Climes

If you are going to own a share in a business, buy into a business in a country that likes business. You’ll probably do better that way.

Some countries bury their entrepreneurs in red tape. Others welcome job creators and foment economic growth. You can find out which is which–which countries, that is, are best for business–by looking up data from the International Finance Corp., the World Bank’s private-sector development arm.

Full story at Forbes.com