Penske has opened a new truck rental, leasing and maintenance facility in Phoenix. (PRNewsFoto/Penske Truck Leasing)

Posted by Heidi Schwartz

Penske Truck Leasing held a grand opening event in Phoenix to introduce a new state-of-the-art facility. The $6 million building provides full-service truck leasing, consumer and commercial truck rental and contract truck fleet maintenance services.

This new location, which employs 55 associates, features five truck service bays, an automated wash bay and a three-lane commercial truck fuel island with bulk Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) dispensation. The maintenance shop utilizes leading-edge wireless technology to enable Penske’s service technicians to connect vehicles for service automatically with diagnostic and analytic software. The location has also been built to service trucks with engines that run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

“We moved to this new location because we needed the space due to our growth,” said Rick Pytlik, Penske Truck Leasing Senior Vice President for the Western Region. “We’ve doubled the size of our building space and increased our acreage fivefold. We’re also now well positioned to accommodate future expansion of our operations.”

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Photo: UWT Logistics

Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty along with UWT Logistics announced plans to expand the company’s facilities in Memphis, TN. The expansion represents a $4.8 million investment by UWT Logistics and will create 81 new full-time jobs.

“Tennessee’s global transportation systems provide unsurpassed efficiency and proximity to customers throughout the U.S. and around the world,” Hagerty said. “Companies like UWT Logistics understand the competitive edge that our solid infrastructure and pro-business environment offer. I appreciate the continued investment UWT Logistics is making in Shelby County and its citizens.”

From left to right: Chris Williams, CEO of UWT Logistics, A C Wharton, Jr. Mayor of Memphis, David Ozier, CFO of UWT Logistics, Joann Massey, Business Development Consultant, TN Department of Economic & Community Development, Mark Herbison, Sr. VP of Economic Development, Greater Memphis Chamber

“At UWT Logistics, we are committed to making a difference in Memphis though our core values of family, excellence and growth. We have a team in place that does the family thing well, both internally and in our community. We continue to strive for excellence both in service to our customers and in being diligent with our resources. With those values in place, the table is set for growth,” UWT Chief Financial Officer David Ozier said.  “We are focused on expanding our footprint in the city of Memphis by bringing in new customers, offering more services and adding the right people to our family. We are grateful for the state of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, the Greater Memphis Chamber, the Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County, and other local economic development agencies for their support in reaching our goals.”

“This is another significant step forward in our efforts to provide jobs and strengthen our local economy,” Memphis Mayor AC Wharton said.

“UWT Logistics personifies what it means to be great corporate citizens. In everything they do, you can see that they have a great passion for Memphis and its people,” Senior Vice President of the Memphis Chamber Mark Herbison said.  “The jobs they are creating in some of the poorest neighborhoods of the city are making a real difference in the lives for some of the people in our community that need it most.”

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Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, State of New Jersey

By the Business Facilities Staff
From the March/April 2013 issue 

BF: Amazon has announced it will build a $200-million fulfillment center in Robbinsville, the first phase of a major investment in NJ. Do you anticipate that central New Jersey will be a major logistics hub?
KG: Yes, I believe central New Jersey and the state as a whole will continue to develop as a major logistics hub. With more than 38,000 miles of interstates and highways, nearly 1,000 miles of rail freight lines and the nation’s third largest seaport—not to mention access to 130 million consumers within a day’s drive—New Jersey is already a leader in transportation and logistics. Central New Jersey is a great location for companies that need access to world-class infrastructure and transportation networks.

BF: The University Heights Science Park in Newark is gaining international attention, with Biotrial of France establishing its North American headquarters there. What role do Newark’s five universities play in attracting new biotech players to the state’s largest city?
KG: The Science Park is focused on drawing in technology companies that specialize in biosciences and biotechnology, information and communications, environmental and energy technology and advanced manufacturing technology. Home to 35,000 university students, researchers and professors, the research taking place and the highly skilled workforce being trained in New Jersey are the forces behind attracting new global biotech companies to Newark and to New Jersey. The state public research universities that are involved in Science Park—University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), Rutgers-Newark and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)—annually conduct nearly $100 million of research, most of which takes place at their sponsored technology centers in Newark’s University Heights district. Additionally, Essex County College focuses on training the technicians in 11 science and technology fields.

BF: Gov. Christie recently signed the Angel Investor Tax Credit Act, which is aimed at spurring early-stage biotech investment. How does the program work?
KG: The law encourages investment in technology companies by providing a tax credit against corporation business and gross income taxes of up to 10 percent of the qualified investment, up to a maximum of $500,000 per year for each investment. The program is subject to a $25 million annual cap. To be eligible, companies must have fewer than 225 employees, with at least 75 percent of those jobs within New Jersey, and must conduct research, manufacturing or technology commercialization in the state.

BF: Data storage leader CommVault is putting its global headquarters in Fort Monmouth. Are other companies considering locating at the Fort Monmouth site?
KG: At the end of January, the State reached a significant milestone in the redevelopment of the former military installation when the first sale of property was finalized between the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) and CommVault. The global technology leader plans to undertake a three-phase project on the 55-acre site in Tinton Falls, including a 275,000-square-foot facility to serve as its worldwide corporate headquarters. Once the three phases of the project are completed, CommVault may create a total of up to 1,500 new jobs in NJ. In addition to CommVault, AcuteCare Health System is also expected to soon call the former Fort home. The company plans to reuse the former clinic as a medical facility, creating 50 new jobs in the near-term and investing a minimum of $5 million. AcuteCare is a privately owned corporation formed in 2002 to establish and manage long term acute care hospitals.

BF: How is the FMERA working to spur development at the former Army base?
KG: The Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authorization Act is creating an environment where companies can invest and employment can grow. FMERA is responsible for filling the 1,127 acres of land, with a focus on attracting technology-based companies. Master broker Cushman & Wakefield continues to leverage the work of FMERA to market the former Fort Monmouth property to attract businesses and investors. The Cushman & Wakefield team established www.fort-monmouth-marketing.com to showcase the property.

BF: NJ purchased billboards at the Super Bowl and President Obama’s inauguration for its “Resilience” campaign. What is the key message of this campaign?
KG: The key message of the “State of Resilience” campaign is that New Jersey is open for business, despite being hit by Superstorm Sandy in October. The objective of this integrated marketing campaign is to share this message with corporate decision makers in targeted top markets, while reassuring companies already invested in the state. New Jersey still remains a prime location for business, and it’s our job to let the world know that. And it’s important to note that not a single tax dollar was spent on this campaign, which is being led by Choose New Jersey, Inc., the state’s nonprofit business recruitment agency in partnership with New Jersey’s private industry sector.

BF: What are the most important steps NJ is taking to improve its business climate?
KG: New Jersey is equally dedicated to attracting new jobs and investment while retaining the businesses that are here. It’s important for us to promote New Jersey’s business advantages nationally and internationally. To do this, we meet with companies across a range of sectors, as well as with site selection consultants to update them on NJ’s business value proposition. In 2010, we created the Partnership for Action. This organization is made up of the New Jersey Business Action Center, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and Choose New Jersey, Inc. Since its inception, the Partnership for Action has worked with the state government to generate a projected 64,056 new and retained jobs and more than $9.8 billion in capital investment. We also have worked with policymakers on lowering taxes, adopting a single sales factor, eliminating or streamlining the red tape and bureaucracy, and restructuring government to make it easier for our businesses to grow, while also recruiting new businesses to NJ. The bi-partisan Red Tape Commission has succeeded in removing dated regulations, fostering the use of online technology to streamline licensing and permitting applications; it continues to review the state’s regulatory process to remove obstacles that impede growth.

All of these organizations continue to work together to find new ways to improve our economy and market our key messages, so that every company knows what we can do for them in New Jersey.

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Dean Barber, Principal, Barber Business Advisors, LLC

By Dean Barber, Principal, Barber Business Advisors, LLC

The post Not So Wild A Dream appeared first on Business Facilities.

Søren Sørensen (left) and Jes Munk Hansen (right) of Grundfos.

Global water pump manufacturer Grundfos has broken ground on the site of its new North American headquarters in Downers Grove, IL. IL Gov. Pat Quinn and Downers Grove Mayor Martin Tully joined Grundfos executives Søren Sørensen and Jes Munk Hansen in ceremoniously initiating construction on the office and unveiling the LEED-certified design concepts for the space.

Sørensen, Grundfos Group Executive Vice President and Chairman of the Grundfos North American Board, explained the importance of Grundfos North America to the global business strategy: “North America is one of our most important growth markets and is the world’s single largest market for pumps with a total market of $6.5 billion. To grow our share of this market, we will continue to invest in product development, local production, and our workforce. We will grow our sales to $1 billion by 2017, and as a consequence of our growth, we anticipate adding a significant number of jobs in the U.S.”

According to Hansen, president of Grundfos North America, “The Chicago area is emerging as an important hub for the water industry and is one of the reasons why we’re establishing our North American headquarters here. Gov. Quinn and the state of Illinois have shown commitment to water issues, most recently through his $1 billion initiative to upgrade water infrastructure across the state, and we anticipate playing a major role in the further development of critical water initiatives in the state and around the country.”

Gov. Quinn, who recently launched the $1 billion Illinois Clean Water Initiative to protect public health, create thousands of jobs and overhaul the state’s aging water infrastructure, welcomed  the $4 billion Denmark-based company to Illinois.

“I am pleased that Grundfos has chosen Illinois as the location for their North American headquarters,” Quinn said. “The Clean Water Initiative has made Illinois even more attractive for international businesses like Grundfos. Today’s announcement will grow our economy and strengthen our water infrastructure, while creating jobs.”

The company is quick to add that local aspects also attracted its focus on the area such as world-class airports with access to local, regional and global flights and its strong talent pool for hiring in leadership, staff and support functions.

“Our community continues to be one of the premier locations for corporate headquarters and large office development projects” said Mayor Tully. “Grundfos is a world class company and we are proud to have them in Downers Grove.”

Sustainability is a major priority for Grundfos. In addition to manufacturing energy- and water-efficient pumping solutions, the company is committed to reducing its own impact on the environment. For its new headquarters, it is pursuing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver for Commercial Interiors, the recognized system for certifying high-performance green tenant spaces, and will meet the following criteria:

• Water Efficiency: The office will take advantage of low-flow fixtures to reduce water consumption by at least 20 percent in the café area.
• Energy and Atmosphere: Up to 84 percent of office appliances will be Energy Star-approved and none of the heating, ventilation or air-conditioning equipment will use chlorofluorocarbon-based refrigerants. The office will also optimize energy performance by reducing power lighting density by up to 35 percent below industry standards and by utilizing occupancy sensors in at least 75 percent of lighting to prevent empty rooms from wasting energy.
• Materials and Resources: The headquarters will feature an area dedicated to the collection and storage of recyclable materials and up to 75 percent of construction waste will be diverted to recycling facilities rather than landfills. Furthermore, the office’s furniture, carpet, ceiling tiles and other materials will feature at least 20 percent recycled content.
• Indoor Environmental Quality: Smoking is not allowed in the building or within 25 feet of doors, windows or heating, ventilation and air-conditioning intakes. In fact, the office will exceed industry ventilation requirements by a minimum of 30 percent. Adhesives, sealants, paintings, coatings and flooring systems will use materials with low volatile organic compounds, which are gases emitted from certain solids or liquids that may have adverse health effects. The design takes advantage of daylight and views while maintaining comfortable temperatures.
• Sustainable Site: With more than ten basic services located within half a mile of the headquarters, employees can access what they need without getting in a car. In addition, two bus stops are within a quarter mile of the office, making public transportation a convenient option.

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By the time the damaged wellhead was capped–nearly three months after the explosion–more than 5 million barrels of oil had leaked into the Gulf. That’s almost 20 times more than what seeped out of the Exxon Valdez off the coast of Alaska in 1989.

The five states that were impacted by the Deepwater Horizon disaster (including 665 miles of contaminated coastline), Gulf Coast business owners, the federal government and BP have spent the past three years dancing a slow legal tango that has assessed clean-up costs, fines and other liabilities.

The British oil giant estimates its overall liability for the catastrophe could eventually top $42 billion; BP has sold off significant assets to generate cash for the payouts.

In December, a federal judge approved the Deepwater Horizon Economic and Property Damages Settlement agreement, which covers individuals and businesses in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and certain coastal counties in eastern Texas and western Florida, as well as specified adjacent Gulf waters and bays. BP says it has set aside about $8 billion to cover these economic and property damage loss claims (the agreement does not set a cap on the liability), of which about $1.87 billion has already been paid out (the overall settlement includes a guaranteed $2.3-billion fund to compensate seafood industry businesses damaged by the spill).

Meanwhile, a trial underway in New Orleans will determine civil claims under the Clean Water Act which could amount to more than $17 billion; billions more could be assessed after damage claims from Gulf Coast states are adjudicated; and a third set of claims covering natural resource damage has yet to be filed.

While the overall scope of the settlements is still taking shape, a bureaucratic framework has been put in place to distribute these funds.

In 2011, the  RESTORE Act established a Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council, which is comprised of governors from the five affected States, the Secretaries from the U.S. Departments of the Interior, Commerce, Agriculture, and Homeland Security as well as the Secretary of the Army and the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Gulf States recommended and President Obama appointed the Secretary of Commerce as the Council’s Chair.

The RESTORE Act dedicates 80 percent of all administrative and civil penalties related to the Deepwater Horizon spill to a Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund. It specifies that these funds can be utilized “to restore and protect the natural resources, ecosystems, fisheries, marine and wildlife habitats, beaches, coastal wetlands and economy of the Gulf Coast region.”

The RESTORE Act sets forth the following framework for allocation of the Trust Fund:

• 35 percent equally divided among the five States for ecological restoration, economic development and tourism promotion;
• 30 percent plus interest managed by the Council for ecosystem restoration under the Comprehensive Plan;
• 30 percent divided among the States according to a formula to implement State expenditure plans (the formula factors in oiled shoreline, population and distance from the Deepwater Horizon rig);
• 2.5 percent plus interest for the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Science, Observation, Monitoring and Technology Program within the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and
• 2.5 percent plus interest allocated to the States for Centers of Excellence Research grants, which will each focus on science, technology and monitoring related to Gulf restoration. 

State and local economic development officials throughout the Gulf Coast region are gearing up to receive their share of the Deepwater Horizon disaster trust fund.

According to state officials, Mississippi was the first state to come up with a dedicated plan to use these funds. Gov. Phil Bryant came forward with a GoCoast 2020 plan that lays out how Mississippi will spend its share of funds from the Restoration Council.

Here are some of the projects in Mississippi that eventually may be built using BP disaster funds, as reported by the Mississippi Press (GulfLive.com):

Jackson County, MS is considering using the BP funds to expand Trent Lott International Airport; expand rail services; eliminate 23 railroad crossings in Pascagoula and Moss Point; dredge bayous throughout the county; and replace a county bridge that connects east and west Jackson County, a $20-million project.

Pascagoula, MS is considering a $24.2-million riverfront project which would include Point Park, a beach promenade, Yazoo Lake channel dredging, Inner Harbor repairs and adding public access and a restaurant at Spinnaker Point. Another $424-million project would acquire riverfront property, relocate the wastewater treatment plant, complete Lighthouse Park and connect the bayou north of Lake Yazoo to the lake for improved drainage. A proposed $7.6-million project would convert Lowry Island into a recreational harbor.

Other Mississippi towns are queuing up to deploy the BP restoration funds to expand highways, repair bridges, build water treatment plants and restore wetlands.

Here’s hoping the improvements funded by the Deepwater Horizon settlements outlast the damage to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Coast wrought by BP’s big oil spill.

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Obama promised he would support NASA’s ambitious plans to replace the Shuttle with a new space vehicle. It was an easy promise to make at the time. The economy was still intact and everyone loves bold visions of futuristic space projects. The man Obama was vying to replace, President George W. Bush, had gone even further a few years earlier–telling NASA to aim for Mars.

As president a year later, Obama discovered this was a promise he couldn’t keep. The economic collapse at the end of 2008 forced an assortment of tough spending choices on the country. Keeping the banks solvent and the car industry alive obviously took priority over snazzy new rockets and manned space vehicles. NASA’s budget was decimated, and plans to build a new manned space vehicle were cancelled by President Obama. On July 21, 2011 – ironically the 42^nd anniversary of the first time humans set foot on the moon – the Space Shuttle landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the last time.

So Florida’s Space Coast had to rethink its mission and redeploy its resources to compete in a brave new world in which government funding of space initiatives could not be expected and private corporations were gearing up across the country to fill the void with their own space-exploration ventures.

We’re pleased to report that Florida’s Space Coast appears to have met this challenge and is poised for a rebound.

Private employers on the Space Coast, which is centered on Brevard County and includes Cocoa Beach and Merritt Island, have created more than 4,000 jobs since 2010, adding 1,000 more this year. These jobs are coming to service a diverse galaxy of high-tech initiatives, including aerospace, aviation and engineering, all well-suited to the skill sets of former NASA program workers.

When NASA moved out, companies including jet-maker Embraer, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Rocket Crafters moved in, bringing a host of small businesses in their wake.

Fortunately, the Space Coast area had experience to draw from in managing this conversion. In 1972, when President Nixon ended the Apollo moon landing program (several additional moon landings were still on the schedule when the program was axed), about 18,000 jobs were lost.

Economic development officials on today’s Space Coast absorbed the key lesson from the Apollo shutdown – planning for the post-Space Shuttle era began well in advance of the last Shuttle flight.

Thankfully, this foresight is beginning to pay off. We applaud the resilience of the Florida Space Coast community and wish them great success as they boldly move into this new era.

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The company, which provides long-haul, dry van truckload service throughout North America, will invest $5.7 million to build a 61,000 square-foot training facility near its Indianapolis headquarters campus. In addition to the Quality Drivers school, the building will house dorm rooms, a cafeteria, workout room, basketball/racquet court, Wi-Fi and driver training road course. Facility construction is expected to be complete by the fall.

“Celadon’s commitment to Hoosiers reflects a growing confidence in the business climate in our state,” said Pence. “At the heart of the nation, our convenient location and expansive transportation infrastructure strengthen Indiana’s reputation as the ‘Crossroads of America.’ Combine this with our competitive tax climate and skilled workforce and, logistically speaking, Indiana works for business.”

The first class of driver training school candidates began last October. Based on the individual driver, the program offers a three to five-week training curriculum, both in the classroom and on the road. Celadon plans to bring in overlapping classes of driver trainees every two weeks.

“Driver recruitment and driver retention is a long-term challenge within the industry,” said Paul Will, president and chief executive officer of Celadon. “Logistically, locating the driver training school in Indiana is a sound business decision that provides access to the state’s vast resources, but it also gives Celadon another opportunity to give back to the state of Indiana by contributing significant jobs numbers right here in Indianapolis. We’re extremely happy and proud to continue our commitment to the local and state economies.”

Founded in 1985, Celadon ranks as one of North America’s largest truckload carriers with annual revenue exceeding $600 million. The company has also been recognized as one of the safest truckload carriers with multiple first-place finishes in the Truckload Carriers Association’s National Fleet Safety Awards among carriers annually hauling more than 100 million miles. Employing more than 650 Hoosiers, Celadon has approximately 4,000 associates nationwide and operates roughly 3,000 tractors and 8,700 trailers. Its customer base includes many Fortune 500 shippers, including most major retailers and manufacturers.

“Celadon’s commitment to Indianapolis is crystal clear with the investment it is making in our community by providing new quality jobs for our workforce with a focus on retention while also offering the training necessary to succeed,” said Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard. “With its plans to build a new facility here to accommodate its driver school, Celadon is among a growing number of companies choosing to expand in Indianapolis.”

The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Celadon Trucking Services, Inc. up to $2,950,000 in conditional tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. The city of Indianapolis will consider additional property tax abatement at the request of Develop Indy.

The announcement of Celadon’s expansion adds to Indiana’s growing distribution and logistics industry. Indiana is home to more than 11,000 total highway miles, four international airports and 4,165 miles of active rail track. The state ranks 9th in the country in total railroad mileage, and 76 percent of the track is operated by Class I railroads.

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We don’t know where all the climate-change skeptics have gone, but we don’t expect to hear from them again.

Most of us now accept the grim reality that weather patterns which have endured for centuries have dramatically and perhaps permanently shifted in our lifetimes. A national conversation has begun on the short- and long-term measures we must take to deal with this new normal.

From Washington comes news that the U.S. has signed an agreement with the Netherlands for broad collaboration on disaster mitigation and sustainable planning.

Water-logged Holland probably has more experience than any other nation on what needs to be done to combat rising sea levels in low-lying areas. The Dutch have erected the world’s most sophisticated network of dams, floodgates, storm-surge barriers and levees to manage the tidal flow of the North Sea into Holland’s ubiquitous canals.

Two gigantic moving sea walls, each of which cost billions, are now operational and can be closed to cut off the surge of water which periodically threatens Rotterdam, Europe’s busiest port. In the U.S., serious discussion has begun about whether it will be necessary to build a similar mega-structure to protect lower Manhattan, which when it was founded in the 1600s went by the moniker — irony alert! — New Amsterdam.

The good news is that all the talk about disaster preparedness has quickly focused on a central priority: we must engineer our ongoing disaster recovery response so that whatever emerges will have a much better chance of dealing with future onslaughts. When he announced this week’s agreement with the Netherlands, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan stressed that a key goal of the collaboration is “to mitigate the impact of future natural disasters.”

Business Facilities is doing its part to keep the conversation going. The keynote address at our annual LiveXchange event (May 19-21, Westin Stonebriar, Dallas, TX) will be delivered by John Copenhaver, the former FEMA director for the Southeast region of the U.S.

Mr. Copenhaver’s talk is entitled “Self-Reliance: The Key to Disaster Recovery.” He will focus on the need for locations big and small in vulnerable areas to make sure they have the resources in place to deal with the megastorms and other disasters to come. He also will explain why it’s critical to tailor today’s disaster recovery to produce a result that makes us safer when tomorrow’s natural catastrophes arrive.

The need to do this is being embraced on the state and local level as well as in the White House. At a public policy symposium hosted this week by the New Jersey chapter of NAIOP, the commercial real estate development association, Gov. Chris Christie, NJ State Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald each addressed the ongoing Sandy recovery with an eye towards the future and the big storms to come.

A $60-billion federally funded recovery effort is now underway in the NY-NJ region. To get a sense of the scope of this undertaking, consider these statistics cited by Gov. Christie in his keynote to the NAIOP gathering:

In the wake of Sandy, electricity was cut off to 7 million of New Jersey’s 8.8 million residents; 136,000 families were left homeless; more than 10 million cubic yards of debris had to be cleared from public property; the Jersey Shore, which generates more than $40 billion in revenue annually for the state, was decimated.

The night after the storm passed through, Christie said, he logged onto Google Earth and took a look at his state from space. “It was dark,” the governor said.

Thanks to the heroic efforts of Gov. Christie and many others, more than 1 million NJ residents were evacuated before the storm hit, limiting the death toll to 40; 95 percent of the power was restored within 14 days and the debris on public lands was cleaned up within 90 days. Now, the arduous task of rebuilding has begun.

Assembly Leader Greenwald emphasized that how New Jersey rebuilds is as important as how fast. ”It is critical that the rebuilding be done in a way that diminishes the impact of future storms,” he said. “We have to make sure that we don’t have to spend this money all over again.”

In terms of climate, Sen. Sweeney noted, “the New Jersey we grew up in is not the one we live in now. We have to be ready for tornados, floods and everything else.”

Perhaps the most critical issue still to be resolved in the Sandy recovery is whether all of the damaged structures should be rebuilt in New York and New Jersey. NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing that the Empire State undertake a $400-million program to buy up the most vulnerable shoreline properties and convert them back to wetlands.

Asked whether NJ is considering following New York’s lead on this, Greenwald conceded that a serious discussion of whether to put limits on rebuilding has yet to take place in Trenton.

We’ll keep you posted.

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The run-up to Washington’s latest manufactured budget crisis closely follows the script for a generic Road Runner cartoon. Wile E. Coyote arranges for an Acme safe to be hurled off a cliff over Road Runner’s favorite route through the cartoon desert. Mr. Coyote’s timing is off, the Road Runner zips through unscathed and Wile E. goes down to investigate. He looks up and gets clobbered by the tardy safe.

In the sequester cartoon unfolding in our nation’s capital, the budget safe falls off the Washington Monument and everything gets squashed, including the U.S. economy.

As this is being written, President Obama is racing around the country making dire predictions about which essential federal services will be decimated if the March 1 sequester deadline is breached and $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts go into effect. The cuts are supposed to be a down-payment on $1.2 trillion in spending reductions spread over the next 10 years.

Here’s a sampling: Half of the USDA’s meat inspectors will be furloughed, forcing all of us to eat canned tuna fish; five divisions of the Armed Forces will be taken off the front lines, imperiling our national security; most of the folks who inspect our shoes, belt buckles and nail clippers at airports will be sent home, adding three hours to the average boarding time for air travel. And so on and so forth.

The president is so busy spinning these visions of gloom and doom he usually neglects to point out that he signed the law creating the sequester in the first place. This happened during an earlier pre-fabricated budget showdown in 2011, which featured a threatened default on the national debt and resulted in the first-ever downgrade of the United States’ AAA credit rating.

To sort out fact from fiction, we think it’s useful to check some non-partisan sources. Unfortunately, their prognostications are just as dire as the stuff coming from the political combatants in Washington.

According to a study issued last fall by the Aerospace Industry Association, the sequester will cost the U.S. more than two million jobs by the end of next year, reduce the nation’s GDP by $215 billion this year, decrease personal earnings of the workforce by $109 billion and send the unemployment rate spiraling back up over 9 percent.

Because nearly half of the automatic sequester cuts are earmarked to hit the Pentagon’s budget, the job-loss pain will be felt most severely in states that are home to the aerospace/defense industry and other critical military supply-chain facilities. At the top of the list are California (an estimated 225,464 jobs lost), Virginia (207,571), Texas (159,473)), Maryland (114,795) and Florida (79,459).

Most Vulnerable States (job losses/sequester budget cuts). (Credit: Aerospace Industry Association)

A consensus of independent analysts warns that the U.S. is poised to plunge back into the depths of the Great Recession if the folks in Washington don’t get their act together.

Partisans on both sides of this drama think they have a failsafe mechanism which will enable us to step aside at the last second and avoid getting crushed by the sequester safe. It’s called a continuing resolution. The script goes something like this:

Step One: The sequester goes into effect and the country writhes in agony as thousands are sent to the unemployment lines (and contaminated meat flows into supermarkets).

Step Two: President Obama and Republicans in Congress stage a month-long orgy of recriminations, each trying to pin the blame for the crisis on the other guy.

Step Three: Congress passes a continuing resolution in April restoring most of the cuts in exchange for a non-binding agreement to raise the retirement age to 85 in 2040 and everyone declares victory.

Of course, even if this outcome is realized, neither side has bothered to calculate the impact of their cartoon drama on the U.S. economy and our sputtering recovery. There’s a distinct possibility that another two months of bickering in this latest fake crisis could by itself extinguish glimmers of business and consumer confidence and spawn a very real Recession not unlike the downturn we recently emerged from. Then federal tax revenues will plunge, the budget deficit will explode and our long-term debt will exponentially increase — the exact opposite of what Congressional leaders claim they were trying to accomplish when they enacted the sequester.

This grim prospect has prompted calls for a ceasefire from some unexpected quarters. Even Karl Rove, Secretary of Political Warfare under President George W. Bush, is urging a compromise of sorts. In an Op-Ed piece this week, Rove suggested that Congress immediately pass a continuing resolution authorizing spending for the rest of the year, capping federal funding at sequester levels and giving President Obama the authority to decide where the cuts will be made to avoid the most onerous reductions. With his usual Machiavellian flourish, Rove’s solution would appease Democrats who want to avoid cuts to social programs like Head Start, while enabling Republicans to place the blame for Defense spending cuts directly on the president’s lap.

The most sage advice we can offer is to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

At least one state appears to be acting on this suggestion: A bill making its way through the Montana legislature offers Montanans an alternative to the tainted meat that may fill supermarket shelves if federal meat inspectors are sent home. The Montana House of Representatives passed a bill last week, introduced by State Rep. Steve Lavin, to allow “game animals, fur-bearing animals, migratory game birds and upland game birds” who have been killed by a car to be harvested for food.

That’s right, they’re making it legal to eat roadkill. To which we can only say, in the immortal response of Wile E. Coyote staring up at the looming Acme safe:

“GULP!“

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