Biden discusses energy in Jefferson City

The VP focused on the middle class' role in energy initiatives.

By Marty Swant

Published April 17, 2009

Vice President Joe Biden was in Jefferson City on Thursday to speak with transformer plant employees about their role in jump-starting the economy with new renewable energy projects.

With Gov. Jay Nixon and U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., standing with him, Biden spoke to ABB Inc. workers about how the federal stimulus package affects Missouri by promoting a new technologically green economy. He said a successful economy is not complete without uplifting middle class workers.

"But what we will not consider a success is if we grow and we lead again, but ... the middle class does not grow with that growth," Biden said.

Although the money for the programs is coming from the stimulus package, the programs starting the economy will be built in the factories first.

"We're seeing the people whose sweat and fingerprints will be all over this new economy," he said.

One of the programs in the stimulus package is the Smart Grid Initiative, which would change the delivery of power from utility departments to homes, making energy distribution more efficient and leaving less environmental imprints and creating more jobs.

Biden said the Department of Energy would distribute more than $3 billion in smart grid technology development grants. This is to help bring the U.S. back to the top in technological discoveries.

"All you got to do is go to France or China and get on a train that will go up to 300 miles an hour," Biden said. "They say it can't be done in America. Ladies and gentlemen, the president says there's nothing we cannot do."

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, who spoke before Biden, said with the smart grid, homeowners and businesses could decide when and how to use their electricity and even opt to sell excess electricity back to the utility company.

"We'll also be able to export this new technology all the way around the world," he said.

Another project Biden discussed is wind power technologies, which represents almost $1 billion of business annually for the ABB parent group, a company operating in about 100 countries, with 650 employees at the Jefferson City plant.

One of those projects is Missouri's Lost Creek Ridge Wind Farm in northwest Missouri, which would be large enough to power over 50,000 homes.

The stimulus package is a "critical down payment" to reshaping the energy industry, Locke said.

Hundreds of ABB employees, many of whom were there as part of their shift, attended the speech.

After the speech, ABB operations manager Bryon Paneitz said he's glad the company would be getting more work as a result of these programs.

"Anytime we can get more work in the factory, I'm happy," he said.

Biden toured the plant before his speech, and said what he saw could be the ground floor of what could be the "economic engine" that propels the nation to once again lead the world.

"I saw hard workers that were smart as heck," he said of the plant.

Frank Riffle, department supervisor of final assembly at the plant, said it was good for the company's workers to hear they're benefiting the nation's economy.

"We needed to know that what we're doing here is making a difference," he said.

-- Staff Writer Evan Spaulding contributed to this report.