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U.S., Brazil to speed up cellulosic ethanol research

Fri Nov 21, 2008 11:24am EST

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The world's top two producers of ethanol, the U.S. and Brazil, will join forces to speed up research into cellulose-derived biofuels, which use inedible plant matter rather than crops as their feedstock.

In a statement they said they would expand scientific collaboration led by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Brazilian oil giant Petrobras' Center for Research and Development CENPES.

The two nations would also to help five countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean to develop their own biofuel industries, investing $4.3 million in biofuel projects in Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Guinea Bissau and Senegal.

Existing partners already being helped to develop their biofuel industries including the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti and St. Kitts and Nevis would also benefit.

The U.S. agriculture secretary Ed Schafer and Brazil's foreign minister Celso Amorim announced their agreement late on Thursday at an international biofuels conference Brazil has been hosting in Sao Paulo, which concludes on Friday.

The Latin American nation began pioneering use of sugar cane ethanol in the mid-1970s making cars adapted to run on the biofuel. A newer generation of "flex-fuel" cars launched around four years ago can run on any mix of ethanol and gasoline.

"Second generation" or cellulosic ethanol which is not yet produced on a commercial scale, involves breaking down the woody bits of crop waste or plants into sugars to ferment -- a method expected to emit less greenhouse gases than cane and corn-based production.

(Reporting by Peter Murphy; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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Published on mndaily.com - Serving the University of Minnesota Since 1900 (http://www.mndaily.com)

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Green jobs could help Minnesota's economy

Publish Date: 

11/18/2008

Reporter: 

Conor Shine [1]

As the nation faces pressing economic and environmental, Americans are calling for action to combat both issues at the same time.
According to a survey released Nov. 12 by the Environmental Defense Fund, 58 percent of Americans think investment in new, clean energy technologies could create millions of jobs to help the country recover from the economic crisis.
The Minnesota Green Jobs Task Force , formed by the state Legislature in the last session, researches the current green industry and will develop an action plan to help the Legislature and governor decide how to best advance Minnesota's green industries.
State Rep. Jeremy Kalin, DFL-North Branch, who is co-heading the group with state Sen. Ellen Anderson , DFL-St. Paul, said there is an opportunity to create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue by building Minnesota's green industries.
Kalin said there's been a call for more green initiatives at a grassroots level and some businesses have been taking steps to go green. But, he said, now is the time to start removing the remaining barriers to allow green industries to really take off.
By focusing on building a green economy, Kalin said the state can address its environmental and economic issues at the same time.
"There is certainly an opportunity in the next few years to turn this economy around as fast as we can in a sustainable way," he said.
Kalin said he sees students as playing an important role in building green industries, serving as leaders and innovators as the industry grows.
"There is definitely a role for young people to fill and make good money doing it," he said.
Although green jobs are becoming more common, there still isn't a concrete definition of what a green job is, Richard Overmoyer , a researcher for the task force, said.
In his team's research, Overmoyer said they defined a green job as any job in an industry that is involved in producing green products, creating renewable energy, providing green services or promoting environmental conservation.
Kit Batten , a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress , a Washington D.C. based think-tank, said that by investing $100 billion in the green economy over the next two years, an estimated 2 million jobs could be created nationwide.
According to a September report released by the CAP, more than 37,000 jobs could be created in Minnesota alone if the $100 billion national investment went through.
"We're talking about a major increase in job creation potential by investing in green strategies," Batten said.
EcoWatch student group president Holly Lahd , a University senior in applied economics and environmental sciences, policy and management, said it's exciting to see green industries growing from a niche market into an important sector of the economy.
Addressing economic and environmental problems at the same time is a good idea, she said, because there isn't time to put off environmental issues while the economy recovers.
"I'm worried that the slow economy will be used as an excuse to not achieve our environmental goals," Lahd said.

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© 2008 Minnesota Daily

Source URL (retrieved on 11/19/2008 - 6:55pm): http://www.mndaily.com/2008/11/17/green-jobs-could-help-minnesota%E2%80%99s-economy

WINDSPIRE INSPIRES GOING GREEN! (GREAT LAKES IT REPORT PRESS RELEASE)

An example of a Windspire installation

Posted: Monday, 17 November 2008 9:35PM

Warren Schools To Consider Renewable Energy Curriculum

A unique vertical-axis wind turbine would be installed at the Macomb Math, Science and Technology Center under an agreement to be considered Wednesday night by the board of the Warren Consolidated Schools.

The Windspire wind turbine would be installed by Southern Exposure Renewable Energy Co. of Ortonville. It's manufactured by Nevada-based Mariah Power.

The turbine is part of a larger proposal to create a "renewable energy institute" at the math and science magnet school, with the company and the school district working together to develop a new renewable energy curriculum.

More at www.mariahpower.com or www.seenergyco.com.

Recently Mariah Power partnered with Mastech of Sterling Heights to manufacture its Windspire product at Mastech's plant in Manistee. The first Michigan made wind turbines are scheduled to become available in February.

November 9, 2008
Choking back tears through the smog at the Brazilian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton's victory and a farewell to friends made Sao Paulo emotional
Martin Brundle

LAST weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix was a rollercoaster ride for me, for reasons that extend beyond Lewis Hamilton keeping us on the edge of our seats until the final corner to become the youngest Formula One world champion and the first British winner for 12 years.

Before the weekend I was arguing with myself whether it was right, as an impartial broadcaster, that I was hoping Hamilton would clinch it. After all, either he or Felipe Massa would have been a worthy champion. I satisfied myself that if this had been an England versus Brazil World Cup final, there would be nothing wrong with wanting England to win, so long as I honestly called it as I saw it. After all, I am a British former F1 driver and I don't need to hide from that.

I have spent most of my life working with teams of people, including ITV-F1 this past dozen years. This race was our last broadcast. Together we've travelled, worked and partied, creating award-winning programmes, including 12 Royal Television Society gongs and two Baftas. We have taken a lot of flak for cutting to adverts during the race action, but that's just the way it is: ITV gets the ad revenue, BBC gets the licence fee and Sky gets the subscriptions and ad revenue.

There was an emotional ITV party for the 40 of us present at the event on Saturday night. It turned out to be great, not the wake I had been fearing, given that several team members, like so many others in this difficult economic climate, are heading into an uncertain future.

James Allen said a few words including, "Tomorrow we will disband", which was sobering. We had no way of knowing that the next day was going to be such a thrilling cliffhanger watched by 13m people, otherwise we might have had fewercaipirinhas,Brazil's national cocktail.

Interlagos was the perfect place for a title decider. It is without a doubt the scruffiest, most ill-equipped venue we go to, yet there is something magical about it. It is in the grubby city of Sao Paulo, where favelasand five-star hotels perch side by side, a city of Porsches mixing it with rusty, beaten-up old Chevrolets. You never feel completely safe there, the smog catches the back of your throat, the bathwater is brown and you walk out from your hotel to find people with missing limbs begging.

The track looks old, the paddock is so ridiculously narrow that you see the tyre guys impatiently wheeling the would-be world champion's tyres through the middle of a crowd of nearly famous people. But it has the most fantastic atmosphere sitting in a natural amphitheatre that exaggerates the feeling of a coliseum.

To add to the drama, we had a downpour just as the race was due to start, delaying it by 10 minutes. Three teams told me the possible rainfall had dispersed. Nobody had umbrellas, the sky looked initially calm, but the downpour descended in 10 minutes. I remarked on television that, looking through the letterbox slot of his crash helmet, Lewis appeared more relaxed about the rain than Massa. It was because he had known it was coming. The McLaren forecasters had apparently predicted the correct time and intensity of the downpour to within 15 seconds. That confidence would be a significant factor five laps from the finish, but it could so easily have cost them the championship.

Through the first corner we lost Britain's David Coulthard from the race, another poignant moment for me because he is a former rival and long-time friend and I have negotiated his driving contracts for the past 11 years.

When the ITV commentating role first became available I didn't want it, because I was expecting to be an F1 driver in 1997. I seemed to be the last person to realise that I had already completed my last grand prix.

Coulthard can consider himself a lucky boy because he knew it was his last outing. There was an overwhelming, spontaneous feeling of goodwill towards him from pretty much the whole paddock. The team painted up a pedal car in Red Bull colours for his forthcoming baby boy, the mechanics arranged that he be bagpiped into the car and there was a photo lineup with the other drivers.

I've learnt a lot from him. Having observed F1 and Coulthard closely, if I had known then what I know now, I'd have been a lot more successful as a driver. I beat Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen, three of the great champions of my era, in the same car on the same day. Yet I didn't translate those performances into proper long-term results.

My time with Coulthard made me realise that I wasn't 100% focused. I should have had more people around me, such as a full-time trainer and a physio. I should have engaged the sport's powerbrokers with more frequency and confidence. I needed to have been more ruthless and selfish, less trusting and compliant.

Coulthard will have regrets too. He should probably have taken a world championship. Surely only Schumacher and the likes of Sir Jackie Stewart and Alain Prost could be fully content with their complement of championships, reputations and limbs intact, and proper money in the bank. Or maybe not, because none of them seems able to leave the sport alone.

Last weekend Massa was supreme and Hamilton was tight with fear of losing, his normal flamboyance at the wheel missing as the team carefully guided him to a necessary but overcautious fifth place. The final rainfall gave us one of the most exciting grands prix in history. McLaren did the only sensible thing in bringing Hamilton in for rain tyres, as did Massa, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel ahead of him.

However, with Toyota's Timo Glock staying out on dry tyres - a brave but smart decision that would eventually gain him a place and with Hamilton being overtaken by Vettel, suddenly he was sixth and out of position for the title. Hamilton went into the last lap 12 seconds down on Glock, who had just completed the penultimate lap only three seconds slower. But his tyre temperatures and pressures were falling off a cliff face.

Finally the heavy rain arrived, later than forecast, and we saw a Toyota struggling from Hamilton's onboard camera as he desperately tried to repass Vettel, a driver he had been told not to fight just a few laps earlier. In the next camera shot we saw it was Glock, and Hamilton was through.

Already crossing the line more than half a minute ahead, it seemed Massa could well be the champion, but, especially in such conditions, it's crazy to celebrate too early. Many people missed the Glock pass, but thankfully up in the commentary box we had it all under control.

With a tear in my eye, I decided that all caipirinha limits were immediately lifted. It was serious party time for so many reasons.

Brundle on the final moments

Felipe Massa's mother, father and close family celebrate his supreme victory from pole position in treacherous conditions in front of the adoring Brazilian fans in their own back yard in Sao Paulo, where Massa started racing. They also believe he has won the World Championship but the caption already shows Hamilton in a critical fifth place.

Moments later, a Ferrari team member tells them that Hamilton has passed Toyota's Timo Glock at the last corner, has crossed the line and is, in fact, the 2008 world champion. Utter disbelief and despair follows. Massa and his family have handled themselves throughout the season with style, class and dignity, never more so than in the final race, making this image all the more sad. For a TV commentator, however, there was no better way to end the season.

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Google Adds Voice, Video Chat to Gmail, Apps

11.11.08

  Total posts: 1

by Chloe Albanesius

Fearful that the tone of your instant messages is sometimes lost in translation? Google on Tuesday announced that it is integrating a voice and video plug-in for it Gmail Chat offering that lets you see or hear the friend with which you are chatting.

Users will need to download and install a plug-in, and have access to a Webcam for video purposes. Google has partnered with Logitech and Buy.com to offer discounts of up to 30 percent on several cameras, as well as free shipping, until November 30.

A $99.99 Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, for example, is available for $69.99, while a $49 Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP is now $39.99.

"I'm a big user of Gmail chat. Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity," Justin Uberti, a Google software engineer, wrote in a blog post. "But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can't be expressed in a chat message."

Once installed, click the "video & more" link inside the chat window and select "start video chat" or "start voice chat." The friend you are trying to contact will hear a ring and be given the option to accept or ignore the call. Users can then chat within the Gmail tab or pop it out into a separate window and expand or decrease its size.

Voice and video chat is available on Macs running Mac OS X v10.4 or later and PCs running Windows XP or higher. A link to download the offering will be rolled out to all Gmail and Google Apps accounts in the coming days, but it is also available directly at http://mail.google.com/videochat.

The video function was designed via open standards, "which means that third-party applications and networks can choose to interoperate with Gmail voice and video chat," Uberti wrote.

The offering was developed by Google teams in the U.S. and Sweden "so collaborating across continents and time zones is a fact of life for us, and it sure is easier (and greener) to click 'Start video chat' than to get on a plane!" he said.

Why Obama's 'Green Jobs' Plan Won't Work

By Kenneth P. Green Friday, November 7, 2008

Filed under: Science & Technology

It would indeed create jobs, but it would do so by killing other jobs. Is that really what Americans want?

President-elect Barack Obama has put energy policy at the forefront of his agenda. He says that his plan will boost our national security, help us achieve "energy independence," reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote job creation. Indeed, Obama vows to create around five million new jobs by increasing federal spending on renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and biofuels.

As many experts have observed, the science behind the Obama plan is dubious, particularly when it comes to ethanol. The renewable energy industry simply does not have the capacity (at least not yet) to power large swathes of our fossil fuel-driven economy. Just look at the United Kingdom, where a shortage of windmill-building capability has hindered the government's plan to replace aging nuclear reactors with wind power.

If Obama's energy promises rely on questionable science, they rely on even more questionable economics. We are to believe that replacing conventional energy sources (especially coal) with renewables (especially wind) will create five million new "green jobs." The hope is that armies of workers will be enlisted to build tens of thousands of windmills; to manufacture and deploy solar-power installations; to harvest, transport, and process huge amounts of biofuel feedstock; and to string the power lines that will allow the U.S. power grid to incorporate a major expansion of intermittent energy.

Unfortunately, the idea of government "job creation" is a classic example of the broken window fallacy, which was explained by French economist Frédéric Bastiat way back in 1850. It is discouraging to think that, nearly 160 years later, politicians still do not understand Bastiat's basic economic insight.

The idea of government 'job creation' is a classic example of the broken window fallacy, which was explained by French economist Frédéric Bastiat way back in 1850.

He explained the fallacy as follows: Imagine some shopkeepers get their windows broken by a rock-throwing child. At first, people sympathize with the shopkeepers, until someone claims that the broken windows really aren't that bad. After all, they "create work" for the glassmaker, who might then be able to buy more food, benefiting the grocer, or buy more clothes, benefiting the tailor. If enough windows are broken, the glassmaker might even hire an assistant, creating a job.

Did the child therefore do a public service by breaking the windows? No. We must also consider what the shopkeepers would have done with the money they used to fix their windows had those windows not been broken. Most likely, the shopkeepers would have ploughed that money into their store: perhaps they would have bought more stock from their suppliers, or maybe they would have hired new employees. Before the windows broke, the shopkeepers had intact windows and the money to purchase more goods or hire new workers. After the windows broke, they had to use that money to repair the windows, and thus were unable to expand their business.

Now consider Obama's "green jobs" plan, which includes regulations, subsidies, and renewable-power mandates. The "broken windows" in this case would be lost jobs and lost capital in the coal, oil, gas, nuclear, and automobile industries. These industries currently employ more than one million people directly. Conventional power plants would be closed and massive amounts of energy infrastructure would be dismantled. After breaking these windows, the Obama plan would then create new jobs in the renewable energy sector. The costs of replacing those windows would ultimately be passed on to taxpayers and energy consumers.

In short, the Obama plan reflects fallacious thinking of the first order. There may be sound reasons to switch from existing energy sources to renewables, including the need to slash greenhouse gas emissions, the need to reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, and the need to meet growing energy demand. If Americans wish to pay for a wholesale transformation of the energy industry, that is their choice. But let's not lie about the costs, and let's not espouse an economic fallacy that is nearly 160 years old. Obama's "green jobs" plan would indeed create jobs, but it would do so by killing other jobs. Is that really the type of energy policy Americans want?

While we still have time before the last drop of oil on earth is depleted, before the last breath of air is polluted, and before we are no longer able to step outside our homes due to the intense heat.  I say yes.

The transformation will be slow, but first we need training and education for wind, solar, and other alternative energy resources not yet discovered.

This would be the time for the million workers in conventional energy sectors to retrain and prepare, before they too are caught like the hundreds of thousands in the manufacturing sectors.

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008 Commentary 'Green jobs' could be costly for Michigan William Yeatman Gov. Jennifer Granholm has been drinking the "green jobs" Kool-aid, recently announcing that she is creating an energy department and naming an energy czar to pursue "alternative" energy and "create thousands of jobs." Yet in these times of economic distress, the governor's priorities are misplaced. Environmental protection comes at a price -- after all, someone has to pay to keep air and water clean. However, politicians like Granholm claim that clever government policies can result in environmental protections that simultaneously grow the economy. If something sounds too good to be true, it is. Environmental protection still comes at a price, and Granholm's green jobs initiative threatens Michigan's ailing economy. The governor claims that "progressive policies that encourage renewable energy development" would boost Michigan's green economy. And she's partly right: Regulations that force green energy on consumers and producers would boost business for politically favored alternative energy companies, such as manufacturers of wind turbines and solar panels. Increased demand, in turn, would create jobs at these green companies. But at the same time, businesses that supply or use large amounts of conventional energy -- such as traditional manufacturers -- would face decreased demand for their products and would therefore lose employees. Indeed, more jobs would be lost at these firms than would be "created" at the environmentally correct ones. Granholm's "progressive" energy policy might create a net gain for Michigan's green economic sector, but it would create a net loss for the economy. Granholm promises that Michigan will "celebrate job announcements," if it "continues to provide workers with the training they need" in environmentally friendly services. Again, she is partly right: Government can create green jobs by spending taxpayer money on training people to install light bulbs and solar panels so that consumers can meet energy efficiency regulations. What the governor really wants is for the state government to pick winners and losers in Michigan's energy market. This will not yield efficient outcomes. Taxpayer money spent on creating "green jobs" comes out of the market economy, which otherwise would have allocated those resources more efficiently to produce goods and services that consumers actually want. Government pushing "green" goods and services on consumers carries a direct cost, which can be measured in taxpayer dollars, as well as an indirect cost, in forgone economic productivity. Finally, Granholm argues that Michigan must "expand the funding available for research and development" in environmentally friendly energy technologies in order to capitalize on the green economic revolution. Again, she is mistaken, because government has never been good at choosing the most promising emerging technologies. Government is run by bureaucrats and regulators, not venture capitalists. That's why the federal government has wasted so much money in the past on failed energy initiatives, like hydrogen fuel cells and synfuels. Rather than produce a clean energy technology breakthrough, Granholm's clean energy initiative is more likely to become a pork barrel fund for Michigan legislators to have at their disposal to reward constituent schools and companies. William Yeatman is an energy policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free-market research center in Washington, D.C.

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How Closing Manufacturing Plants Can Be Transformed into Community-Saving Business Ventures By Angela Walker , AlterNet Posted on November 12, 2008, Printed on November 12, 2008 http://www.alternet.org/story/106425/ Hit hard by the slowdown in the marketplace and higher fuel prices, Ford Motor Company recently experienced its largest quarterly loss in its 105-year history. With people evacuating their fuel-inefficient vehicles, Ford is experiencing its delayed rude awakening about the unsustainability of an auto industry geared towards producing pickups and sport utility vehicles. Despite plans to introduce six small cars made in Europe to the U.S. market, Ford today announced another 10 percent reduction in salaried payroll costs and will cut as many as 2,200 salaried jobs by January. The oldest Ford plant still in operation -- the Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul, Minnesota -- will be the epitome of the changes to come. With plans to shut down in 2011, an additional 900 jobs will be lost in a plant that used to employ 2,000 workers. Communities throughout the state have already experienced the brunt of the country's economic downturn, Minnesota having lost 50,000 manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2006 alone, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. "We're just hemorrhaging," states former United Auto Worker (UAW) official, Lynn Hinkle, who retired over a year ago from a 30-year career at the Twin Cities Ford plant. Yet something unusual is in the works that could change the future of this 140-acre manufacturing site and convert it into a model for green manufacturing. A coalition of the local UAW 879, McAllister University students, and affordable housing and environmental groups have formed the Alliance to Reindustrialize for a Sustainable Economy (ARISE) to design a green manufacturing site. The ARISE project is currently being considered by the Minnesota Legislature under Senate File 607 as a way to transition workers into a mixed-use facility for green manufacturing. ARISE is re-envisioning how people look at industry, which historically has collided with the environmental movement. Their reindustrialization plans serve as an opportunity for industry to play a key role in the green economy. "It is becoming increasingly clear to people in the union movement that our job security is dependent upon the new energy economy," states Hinkle. "If you're about family sustaining jobs, you have to connect global warming solutions and jobs otherwise you're going to have neither." Ford's current training center would be converted into a green jobs training program for onsite wind turbine manufacturing and installation, and light rail car production. A plan to expand the light rail system is in the works to reach out to surrounding, traditionally low-income communities, which have been working with ARISE on the reindustrialization plans. The Ford plant, located on the Mississippi River, is already connected to a hydroelectric system, which produces 18 megawatts of hydropower, and has powered the plant for over 80 years. Additionally, there exists a maze of tunnels onsite that were originally dug out for silica, used in making glass for windshields. These tunnels may be used for ground-source heating. "We believe there's enough green energy sources on site to go totally noncarbon," says Hinkle. With 140 acres, the coalition has the space to get creative with its envisioning and holistic approach. Businesses would be brought in to develop retail shops on the lower levels of buildings with affordable, residential units above. Walkways up and over the buildings would connect rooftop restaurants and bars to urban gardens with beautiful views of the Mississippi River. To connect the shops to the light rail, small electric vehicles would be produced onsite. Throughout the last century, manufacturing jobs and industry have played a significant role in the growth of cities and development of communities by providing families with low entry-level jobs. Communities cannot afford to continue experiencing the off-shoring of their manufacturing jobs, especially during the current economic downturn. ARISE's plan is to develop this site as a prototype for turning brown fields, or old industrial grounds, into green manufacturing sites to support green jobs and sustainable community development. Student group Summer of Solutions -- in partnership with economic justice organization, Global Exchange -- sees the future of their generation invested in this project. "If we're going to build the green economy, we have to start here," says McAllister graduate Joseph Adamji. "The green jobs movement and the whole idea of shifting and expanding economic opportunity are to make social changes happen. As much as this project is about the Ford site, we need to use it as a model for how we develop communities, intentionally and sustainably." City planners hope to see this space used as a central hub for sustainability projects for St. Paul and beyond. "We could redevelop old manufacturing cities like Detroit and bring economic opportunities and prosperity," states Adamji. "We're trying to say that industry can play a role in the green economy." Decarbonize, reindustrialize, equalize, is what ARISE is saying. The new energy economy can be used to battle lagging economic opportunities and social inequity. ARISE hopes to inspire communities -- from Flint, Michigan to Richmond, California -- to decide how they want to develop a new sense of community. Reindustrialization can be part of this process by formulating ways to generate green energy, mass transit, higher density and energy efficient buildings, and affordable housing. "This is an opportunity to change the landscape literally and figuratively," says Hinkle. "What a great basis to rebuild the union movement. It's an opportunity for the green union movement to emerge, where unions can stand center stage and create aspirations for our entire society." Angela Walker is the media director for Global Exchange. © 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved. View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/106425/

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Lawmakers cut $30M from green, biotech and e-health programs

Boston Business Journal - by Craig M. Douglas

State lawmakers voted last week to slash $30 million from three investment funds targeting ambitious job and economic growth in the biotechnology, green-energy and health care sectors.

State Sen. Marc Pacheco, chairman of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, confirmed Monday that individual cuts to the investment funds were endorsed last week during a supplemental authorization vote at the Statehouse. A House Ways and Means official said each of the three investment funds targeted — the Massachusetts Alternative and Clean Energy Investment Trust Fund, the E-health Trust Fund and the Life Sciences Investment Fund — will each have $10 million pared from their budgets.

The Massachusetts Alternative and Clean Energy Investment Trust Fund, which was part of the state's Green Jobs Act passed in August, will see its balance sheet cut from $43 million to $33 million. The investment vehicle was created to help promote the state's clean-energy sector while also lowering its greenhouse-gas emissions.

The fund was launched with $43 million from the fiscal 2007 surplus. The fund will also receive another $25 million previously budgeted for the Renewable Energy Trust, a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

Pacheco said the state still has significant investment funds at its disposal, adding that last week's cuts are not a sign of a retreat from the commonwealth's fastest-growing sectors.

"We really deauthorized some funds," Pacheco said. "Given the fact that most of the funds authorized ... We were not going to be able to get most of that money out the door by the end of this fiscal period anyway."

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INNOVATION CONSTANT: IRRESPECTIVE of Space and Time!

Unboxed

It’s No Time to Forget About Innovation

James Yang

By JANET RAE-DUPREE

Published: November 1, 2008

BY its very nature, innovation is inefficient. While blockbusters do emerge, few of the new products or processes that evolve from innovative thinking ultimately survive the test of time. During periods of economic growth, such inefficiencies are chalked up as part of the price of forging into the future.

But these aren’t such times. Wild market gyrations, frozen credit markets and an overall sour economy herald a new round of corporate belt-tightening. Foremost on the target list is anything inefficient. That’s bad news for corporate innovation, and it could spell trouble for years to come, even after the economy turns around.

“To be honest, we had a problem with innovation even before the economic crisis. That’s the reason I wrote my book,” says Judy Estrin, former chief technology officer at Cisco Systems and author of “Closing the Innovation Gap.” “We’re focusing on the short term and we’re not planting the seeds for the future.”

In tough times, of course, many companies have to scale back. But, she says: “To quote Obama, you don’t use a hatchet. You use a scalpel. Leaders need to pick and choose with great care.”

There are important things managers can do to ensure that creative forward-thinking doesn’t go out the door with each round of layoffs. Fostering a companywide atmosphere of innovation — encouraging everyone to take risks and to think about novel solutions, from receptionists to corner-suite executives — helps ensure that the loss of any particular set of minds needn’t spell trouble for the entire company.

She suggests instilling five core values to entrench innovation in the corporate mind-set: questioning, risk-taking, openness, patience and trust. All five must be used together — risk-taking without questioning leads to recklessness, she says, while patience without trust sets up an every-man-for-himself mentality.

In an era of Six Sigma black belts and brown belts, Ms. Estrin urges setting aside certain efficiency measures in favor of what she calls “green-thumb leadership” — a future-oriented management style that understands, and even encourages, taking risks. Let efficiency measures govern the existing “factory farm,” she says, but create greenhouses and experimental gardens along the sides of the farm to nurture the risky investments that likely will take a number of years to bear fruit.

“I’m not suggesting you only cut from today’s stuff and keep the future part untouched,” she says. “You have to balance it.”

Yet even that approach has its drawbacks. Companies that create silos of innovation by designating one group as the “big thinkers” while making others handle day-to-day concerns risk losing their innovative edge if any of the big thinkers leave the company or ultimately must be laid off.

“Innovation has to be embedded in the daily operation, in the entire work force,” says Jon Fisher, a business professor, serial entrepreneur, and author of “Strategic Entrepreneurism,” which advocates building a start-up’s business from the beginning with an eye toward selling the company. “A large acquirer’s interest in a start-up or smaller company is binary in nature: They either want you or they don’t, based on the innovation you have to offer. The best way to foster innovation is to create something, put it to the test, build a good company and then get it under the umbrella of a world-renowned company to move it forward.”

David Thompson, chief executive and co-founder of Genius.com Inc., based in San Mateo, Calif., says that innovation “has a bad name in down times” but that “bad times focus the mind and the best-focused minds in the down times are looking for the opportunities.”

“You do have to batten down the hatches and reduce expenses, but you can’t do it at the expense of the big picture,” Mr. Thompson adds. “You always have to keep in mind the bigger picture that’s coming down the road in two or three years.

“The last thing you want to do with innovation is just throw money at it. It’s a very tricky balance.”

In fact, hard times can be the source of innovative inspiration, says Chris Shipley, a technology analyst and executive producer of the DEMO conferences, where new ideas make their debuts. “Some of the best products and services come out of some of the worst times,” she says. In the early 1990s, tens of millions of dollars had gone down the drain in a futile effort to develop “pen computing” — an early phase of mobile computing — and a recession was shriveling the economic outlook.

Yet the tiny Palm Computing managed to revitalize the entire industry in a matter of months by transforming itself overnight from a software maker into a hardware company.

“Our biggest challenge right now is fear,” she says. “The worst thing that a company can do right now is go into hibernation, into duck-and-cover. If you just sit on your backside and wait for things to get better, they’re not going to. They’re going to get better for somebody, but not necessarily for you.”

HOWARD LIEBERMAN, also a serial entrepreneur and founder of the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute, says innovation breeds effectiveness. It’s not about efficiency, he argues. “Efficiency is for bean counters,” he says. “It’s not for C.E.O.’s or inventors or founders.”

The current economic downturn comes as no surprise to him, he says, because it mirrors the downturn at the time of the dot-com bust. Then and now, the companies that survive are those that keep creativity and innovation foremost.

“Creativity doesn’t care about economic downturns,” Mr. Lieberman says. “In the middle of the 1970s, when we were having a big economic downturn, both Apple and Microsoft were founded. Creative people don’t care about the time or the season or the state of the economy; they just go out and do their thing.”

Janet Rae-Dupree writes about science and emerging technology in Silicon Valley.