Attracting business: Missouri's pro-business climate is paying off

Missouri workforce and business climate prompts $30 million GM investment: On Aug. 2, the vice president of General Motors North America told workers that despite plans to lay off 25,000 employees worldwide, the Wentzville, Mo., plant is receiving a $30 million equipment expansion due to workers' performance and Missouri's business climate.

Joe Spielman, GM vice president and general manager of manufacturing, announced plans to invest approximately $30 million in its Wentzville manufacturing operations to upgrade two presses in its stamping facility and improve overall production of GM's full-size vans.

With the investment, mechanical workings will be replaced by electronic systems on the presses that punch out hoods, panels and other parts for the Chevrolet Express and the GM Savana. The upgrades, which will enable workers to make their own parts faster and more efficiently, will begin later this year and continue through 2007. After the upgrade, the two presses will be the most modern and efficient of their type at General Motors.

The plant's high-quality output and productivity were key to GM's decision to invest in the plant.

"That's the real reason I'm here today," Spielman said, citing the prestigious Harbour Report that identified Wentzville as the most productive full-size van facility in North America for the second straight year.

Spielman also praised Gov. Matt Blunt, who was in attendance at the announcement, for his efforts to improve the state's business climate and the time he had taken addressing the concerns of Missouri's automakers.

"A lot of people talk about making their state or their community a good place to do business," he said. "I've got to tell you that this governor has delivered," said Spielman.

"It makes a lot of difference when we're deciding where to put out money and where we're going to invest in the future."

In mid-June, Blunt met with GM officials in Detroit to discuss Missouri's commitment to the auto industry and job creation. "It is clear that Missouri is committed to the auto industry and with one of the best workforces in the world, we welcome the new opportunities presented by this investment by GM," said Blunt.

The GM Wentzville assembly plant, which was opened in 1983, currently employs 2,580 employees. -- Missouri Business

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Gov. Matt Blunt also announced this week that Express Scripts would be keeping its 1,000-plus employees and business in Missouri by building on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus.

I'd like to see the St. Louis Labor Tribune weekly newspaper give the governor an "atta boy." That newspaper's continuing negative campaign is sad.

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I recently attended a meeting of the SEMO Coalition for Peace and Justice group to see a documentary on Iraq, Afghanistan and oil. Including myself, there were 10 people in attendance. A substitute movie on oil peaking was shown.

In a discussion afterward, most in attendance admitted to a shortage of information on this subject. I commented that I liked pro-and-con discussions on such information, including global warming and the issue of the amount of oil left for our oil-consuming worldwide usage.

I've been reading some on this issue to become better informed. My antennae are definitely up, and I zero in on any article pertaining to fossil-fuel energy and alternatives such as nuclear or wind.

The following article was in the Sept. 5 Forbes magazine.

Fuel fury -- The next energy crisis: America has coal to last 250 years. Why is there a shortage?

As if $66-a-barrel oil weren't bad enough, get ready for a spike in your utility bill. The new culprit is coal, which supplies half the nation's electricity. A shortage of clean-burning coal from Wyoming's Powder River Basin (source of 40 percent of the U.S. supply) has kicked up prices 62 percent this year. Consumers are feeling the pinch, with brownouts in the East and utility rate hikes as high as 15 percent. Expect more of the same this winter -- and no relief from the new energy bill, which earmarks $4.3 billion for clean-coal projects.

How can this be? With 280 billion tons of reserves, the U.S. has enough coal to last more than two centuries. This crisis begins, in classic chaos-theory fashion, with an accident along the 100-mile railroad track that moves most coal out of the Powder River Basin. After a wet April, a deluge in mid-May washed out gravel supporting the rails, and 15 cars on a Burlington Northern Santa Fe coal train derailed. Hours later Union Pacific lost 28 cars. Shipments were curtailed for weeks. Peabody Energy and Arch Coal missed out on shipping 10 million tons. Despite replacing 15 miles of track, UP says it's meeting just 80 percent of customer demand.

Some power plants have seen their coal piles shrink to just 15 days of burn, one-third normal levels. To save coal, they're sparking up costlier natural gas-fired plants, pushing the price of gas to $9 million Btu, up 55 percent from a year ago.

With demand for Powder River coal growing fast, more tracks are needed. Yet the two railroads (which enjoy a freight duopoly in the basin) will build them only if they're assured a good return.

For two years they've tried to ram through big rate hikes on coal shipments drawing an antitrust suit by utilities and an investigation by the Justice Department.

Those same utilities are now clamoring to pay higher rates if only the railroads will divert more coal their way.

The best hope for consumers lies in more competition. The privately held Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad is seeking final approval to build a 280-mile track into the Powder River Basin. First shipments could start in 2009.

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I remember about 35 years ago when the nuclear plant was being built in Fulton, Mo. and Dr. Werner von Braun met with Dr. Bill Atchley (then teaching at the Rolla School of Mines and later interim president at Southeast Missouri State University), myself and others. Atchley was the appointed Missouri energy consultant.

Unfortunately, picketing and court action by environmentalists delayed the plant's construction and more than doubled the initial construction estimate.

Even though the Fulton Ameren nuclear plant is a major (and, I submit, safe) component of clean low-cost electricity generation, no additional plant has been built in Missouri in over 35 years.

While Europe and other countries rely on nuclear plant energy, the U.S. continues to let the tail wag the dog.

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If it ain't broke, you're probably not using it enough. -- Author unknown.

Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications.