Panelist

Jun 16, 2009 — Detroit Free Press

John Gallagher, Katherine Yung and Tom Walsh

Jun. 16, 2009 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- 5:53 P.M. -- Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm, provided some of the most thought-provoking comments today. "Globalization is not a good thing," he flatly declared to summit attendees, warning that its heyday is over.

Bremmer predicted that capital and trade flows will become more regional-focused as a result. "Our expectations for global growth should be moderated," he said.

Perhaps even more unsettling, Bremmer said the U.S. is losing its grip as the world's sole superpower.

By Katherine Yung

5:34 p.m. -- Remember the space race? Van Jones, the Obama administration's green jobs czar, surprised many summit attendees by declaring that "we are now in an Earth race."

This time, however, our competitor is China. According to Jones, China is spending $12 million an hour to beat the U.S. in the race to become the leader in renewable energy. Meanwhile, Americans are still arguing over the best government policies for this emerging sector.

By Katherine Yung

5:33 p.m. -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm used the summit to spread her message that Michigan is working to be a leader in clean energy solutions, which would help offset some of the economic pain from thousands of lost auto manufacturing jobs.

Why Michigan? She touted the state's skilled manufacturing workforce, its miles of freshwater shoreline and its ability to store vast amounts of natural gas underground.

In a lighter moment during her speech today, Granholm said it's a hard time to be governor of Michigan but she thrives on the opportunity. "This is the moment where your decisions make a difference. This is the moment where you can really go in new directions," she noted.

Michiganders sure hope she can. By the end of next year, the state is expected to have shed a million jobs since the start of the decade.

By Katherine Yung

3:30 p.m. -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) ' CEO Richard Anderson was a no show at an afternoon town hall about sustainable business solutions. But that didn't stop one of his would-be fellow panelists from pointing out the limited use of carbon offsets at the world's largest airline.

Thomas Lyon, a professor and director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, said that Delta's carbon offset program raised enough money from customers in one year to plant 102,065 trees. However, he calculated that the airline would need to plant 170 million trees in order to offset the carbon emissions generated from all of the flights that its passengers took last year.

Delta wasn't the only example of just how far corporations still have to go in order to be green. FedEx (NYSE:FDX) , who also had an executive at the town hall, uses 172 hybrid trucks to deliver its customers' packages. However, Lyon said this is only equivalent to 0.8% of its fleet of 22,000 vehicles.

By Katherine Yung

3:15 p.m. -- To nobody's surprise, manufacturing leaders at the National Summit today slammed the Employee Free Choice Act, a piece of union-backed legislation that would allow unions the ability to organize workers without the current necessity of a secret-ballot election.

"If a secret ballot election is good enough to elect a president of the United States, it's good enough to decide all sorts of things, including whether you want to be unionized or not," said Don Walker, cochief executive of Canadian auto supplier Magna International. (TSX:MG'Z) (NYSE:MGA) (TSX:MG'A)

Former Michigan Gov. John Engler, now president of the National Association of Manufacturers, called the Employee Free Choice Act the "Employed Forced Choice Act."

The legislation is pending before Congress but the outlook for its passage remains uncertain, despite backing from Democrats in Congress and the Obama Administration.

By John Gallagher

2:55 p.m. -- Office Depot's (NYSE:ODP) CEO, Steve Odland, wants the world to think in shades of green. He's advocating for a new national standard that divides green products into three categories: light green, green and dark green.

Odland says that could help consumers tremendously since there's currently no national standard that defines what constitutes a green product. Instead, more than 300 eco-labels have sprung up, such as "Energy Star" and "Green-e".

Odland would like to see the formation of a U.S. Green Products Council. After all, the country already has a U.S. Green Building Council.

But Office Depot isn't waiting for policymakers to act. It's already tagging many of its products as light green, green or dark green.

Thomas Lyon, a professor and director of the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, agrees that there's a need for a common standard. "We're getting a proliferation of labels and the average consumer can't tell which label is better."

By Katherine Yung

2:40 p.m. -- At a mid-summit briefing, Beth Chappell, president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Club and lead organizer of the summit, said that tickets for the event were selling out both Monday and today, with more than 1,700 tickets sold to the event for each day. That would mean there was a big, last-minute surge in demand since a week ago when Chappell said that sales were running around 1,100 to 1,200.

She also tried to summarize the main themes of the summit discussions to date.

"I think we're looking at a new era of cooperation and collaboration between business and government," she said. "Even business people are saying we can't do it alone anymore."

She said business leaders want government policies to do three things: be stable and predictable; align with long-term goals, and avoid trying to pick winners and losers in industries and companies.

By John Gallagher

12:57 p.m. -- Anthony Earley, chairman and CEO of DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE) -- and recently named to the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F PRS) (NYSE:F PRA) (NYSE:F) board of directors -- talked about Ford's prospects and the future of plug-in electric vehicles in a question-and-answer session with reporters today at the National Summit.

Asked if Ford might be at a disadvantage against partially government-owned competitors General Motors (OOTC:GMGMQ) and Chrysler-Fiat, Earley said, "Of course that's a challenge. Ford Credit is applying to become a bank the way GMAC has done. They just need to make sure that they treat Ford equally on things like that and don't disadvantage the company.

Ford Credit applied to the FDIC for an industrial loan corporation subsidiary, which GMAC has. It is not aiming to become a bank holding corporation like GMAC.

"But I'm confident," Earley added, "that Ford is going to be able to compete with anybody. They've transformed themselves into what will be the premier auto company. And they're ready to compete.

"It's energizing just to talk to those folks. They 're really proud of what they've done and how they've distinguished themselves. ... They see themselves as one of the leaders of the world automotive industry and they're going to get there."

On electric vehicle technology, Earley said, "The plug-in hybrid is the breakthrough because you don't have to have perfect battery technology. As long as you can get 30 or 40 miles out of the vehicle on the battery, then the gas motor kicks in, and it doesn't require specialized infrastructure. You plug it in when you get home. It plugs in to 110 or 220, which is available in every household. ... Ultimately you're going to want plugs in parking decks and malls and things, but it's not necessary to get them off the ground."

Earley said DTE recently took delivery of a plug-in electric Ford Escape hybrid prototype, and the executive who is driving it has reported getting 90 miles per gallon with it.

By Tom Walsh

11:54 a.m. -- The future of social networking media like Facebook looks very bright, according to audience members gathered this morning at a town hall about entrepreneurism and technology innovation.

A majority, 56% to be exact, of those who voted in an electronic poll said they believed that within five years social networking media will become a mainstream approach for corporations and institutions to achieve business goals. Surprisingly, a third of the crowd said this will occur next year.

By Katherine Yung

11:44 a.m. -- A lot of Americans think China is our problem, blaming that nation for currency manipulation and other sins of unfair trade.

But D. Scott Davis, chairman and CEO of United Parcel Serivce Inc., whose fastest growing market is China, didn't want to throw any punches China's way today.

"A lot of the issue is for us to build the right products," he said. " There's going to be a lot of consumers in China over the next 20 years. We need to build the right products that they're going to demand."

By John Gallagher

11:42 a.m. -- According to several business and academic leaders at the summit this morning, now is the time to start that business you've always dreamed about.

"Entrepreneurism is going to be the key to the economic recovery not just in this country but in the world," James Turley, CEO of Ernst and Young LLP, declared at a town hall this morning.

Nearly a decade after the dot com bust, becoming your own boss is hip again.

Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan, boasted to the audience that 15% or 6,000 of the students recently admitted to the school had started a business during high school.

"We're in the perfect time in the history of this country to encourage this," she said. "Let them loose."

U-M now provides 100 courses that are in some way engaged in entrepreneurism, Coleman said.

What exactly does being entrepreneurial mean?

One panelist, Eva Chen, CEO of Internet security firm Trend Micro Inc. (OOTC:TMICY) , had the perfect Twitter-like response: "Using limited resources to create something that you want."

By Katherine Yung

10:23 a.m. |Discussions at the National Summit continued to range far and wide across multiple issues this morning.

At an environmental session on "green homes," speakers tried to alert listeners to the need for greater energy efficiency in tens of millions of homes across the nation.

"Commercial and residential buildings account for more greenhouse gases than transportation," Timothy Wadhams, president and CEO of home products company Masco Corp. (NYSE:MAS) , told the session.

He said consumer education and public policy need to help consumers understand the importance of small changes -- not running the water continuously while shaving or brushing teeth, and eliminating "phantom electricity" use by shutting down computers and appliances when not in use.

One clear take-away from the session: The era of cheap, abundant energy in the United States is over.

"The cost of energy is not coming down, and water scarcity will be a growing issue for our country," Wadhams said.

By John Gallagher

9:31 a.m. -- The National Summit opened its second day at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance Center today with somber calls for top-to-bottom reform of the U.S. educational system.

Dr. Jay Noren, president of Wayne State University, said the United States has fallen seriously behind many other nations in educational attainment at all levels. He called for widespread reform, including longer school days and school years from kindergarten on through high school, dramatically higher salaries for teachers, and much greater tax support for education at all levels.

"In the last decade or two, we've become complacent, and we can no longer claim that world leadership role" that the U.S. once enjoyed in education, he said.

Educational reform was not just a social issue but a business issue.

"We've never been more aware we need to have a highly skilled, highly capable workforce to help us survive," said Linda Hassenfratz, chief executive of Canadian-based Linamar Corp. (TSX:LNR) , an auto supply firm.

All the panelists called for greater funding of education.

"The cuts to education this year are horrendous. Next year they'll be worse. And in the third year, they'll be downright scary," said U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education James Shelton III.

Education has got to become a more challenging experience for students, they said.

"High school is not serious," Noren said. "It needs to be serious. Longer days, longer years."

By John Gallagher

Newstex ID: 35803431