Leading the Way on Job Creation

Leading the Way on Job Creation
By Doug Loon
VP Regional Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

While lawmakers in Washington have been busy creating a regulatory tsunami, Minnesota is working to calm the storm.

A recent bill passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Dayton streamlines the state’s permitting process and assists responsible businesses who want to locate or expand in Minnesota.

This important action by the state of Minnesota comes as the U.S. Chamber releases a new study that identifies the economic impact and jobs that could be created in 49 states if the regulatory red tape and permitting delays were removed from stalled energy projects.

“With this piece of legislation, Minnesota is leading the way on improving the permitting process,” said William Kovacs, U.S. Chamber senior vice president of Environment, Technology and Regulatory Affairs. “In Minnesota alone, our study identified five stalled energy projects that are costing the state’s economy $12.8 billion in GDP and 21,100 jobs a year during the construction phase. No longer will Minnesota businesses be subject to the ‘green-tape’ bureaucracy in which some environmental activists and their allies use every resource at their disposal to block, delay, or cancel job-creating clean energy projects.”

The U.S. Chamber’s groundbreaking study, Project Denied: The Potential Economic Impact of Permitting Challenges Facing Proposed Energy Projects, identifies 351 stalled energy projects nationwide that in aggregate are costing the American economy $1.1 trillion in GDP and 1.9 million jobs a year during the construction phase alone. The study is part of the Chamber’s larger Project No Project initiative, which catalogs energy projects that have been delayed or stopped by a chaotic permitting process.

The business community has long recognized the need for sensible regulations to ensure workplace safety, guarantee worker rights, and protect public health. While many regulations have a positive impact, many others are outdated, ineffective, overly complicated, and counterproductive. In fact, the Small Business Administration puts the total price tag of complying with federal regulations alone at $1.75 trillion in 2008. That amounts to $15,500 for each U.S. household.

It’s our hope other states and the federal government will follow Minnesota’s lead and act now to remove unreasonable regulations and project obstacles so America can remain competitive with the rest of the world.
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Doug Loon manages the U.S. Chamber’s regional operations from his office in the Twin Cities. To learn more about the U.S. Chamber visit their website at www.uschamber.com. To learn more about the Projects No Projects initiative, to http://pnp.uschamber.com/