In this two-part series, Minnesota Monitor examines the state’s efforts to build a greener industrial base and create new jobs in the process. Part I: When it comes to recruiting “green-collar” jobs to Minnesota, critics say Gov. Tim Pawlenty has had a lower profile than some of his peers. Part II: Minnesota has a “ground-up” strategy to generate green manufacturing jobs, but some think the effort could use powering up.

When Minnesota passed one of the nation’s most aggressive renewable electricity standards last year, there was reason to think the law would signal to the renewable energy industry that Minnesota is a good place to do business. It requires that utilities generate 25 percent of electricity from sources like wind, solar or biomass by 2025.

So far there hasn’t been a windfall, and that’s in part because of the intense competition among states to attract “green” manufacturing. As demand increases for wind turbines and solar panels, some predict a wave of new domestic manufacturing jobs.

Our neighbors to the south have perhaps put more into courting these jobs than any other state. Iowa’s governor is known to roam trade show floors. Its economic development office has two employees working exclusively with wind firms. It has an office in Frankfurt, Germany, near many of the major turbine manufacturers. It exempts turbines and other equipment from sales tax. A $100 million “Iowa Power Fund” rewards innovation in renewables and energy efficiency.

So, why can’t Minnesota do what they’re doing?

It’s a question Dentley Haugesag said he gets on a regular basis. Haugesag is Minnesota’s economic development specialist for the wind industry, and he admits Iowa is a formidable competitor.

“Instead of talking about doing it, they’re actually out there doing it,” Haugesag said. “My hat is off to them. They’ve been very successful.”

Continued: Click “Read more”But that success isn’t necessarily Minnesota’s loss, Haugesag said. Wind turbines are made up of lots of parts — things like gears, electronics and hydraulic systems — and some of those parts are already being made in Minnesota for turbine manufacturers in Iowa.

That supply chain is central to Minnesota’s wind strategy, Haugesag said. The state hasn’t committed the resources to chase down turbine manufacturers in Europe, so instead he’s focused on helping existing companies tap into the growing market for wind turbine parts.

Haugesag has been touring the state to meet with manufacturing companies that have the capacity to make various turbine parts. He came up with about 60 that were interested, and information about them is being compiled into a web database that will be unveiled at this year’s wind energy industry conference in June.

So, say you’re a turbine manufacturer and you’re looking for a company to make some gears for you. You could search “gears” and get a list of all the Minnesota companies that are up to the task. The database will also be a tool to convince larger turbine manufacturers that Minnesota would be a convenient place to set up shop.

“This will go farther than Minnesota. This will go farther than Iowa. It might go even global, because now, with the weak dollar, it’s certainly feasible to ship components offshore,” Haugesag said.

It’s a strategy that was born of frugality, he admitted, but added he doesn’t think it’s a bad strategy. It’s maybe a bit like comparing the Minnesota Twins to the New York Yankees. The emphasis is on developing existing talent instead of spending big to bring in star players.

“This is kind of a ground-up approach,” Haugesag said. “I think we’re going to get a lot done. It just might take a little longer, but I think it might be more securely based.”

An opportunity blows past

Last November, Dutch wind-turbine manufacturer Vestas announced its intentions to open a research and development center in the United States that would come with about 80 high-paying jobs. The unusual announcement, via press release, set off a marketing war among more than 30 states hoping to attract the research center.

In Minnesota, Rep. Jeremy Kalin, DFL-North Branch, and Rep. Aaron Peterson, DFL-Appleton, saw an opportunity for Minnesota to attract “green” jobs to the state, and they started organizing an effort to win the company. Gov. Tim Pawlenty reportedly contacted Vestas on his own, and the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development started preparing its pitch and organizing a letter-writing campaign. The governor, the mayors, University of Minnesota leaders, and others all wrote to the company, according to Haugesag.

Then, a couple months ago, as the state was completing its final proposal to Vestas, the Dutch company announced it had narrowed its choice to five states. Minnesota didn’t make the cut.

“The frustration from a lot of us at the Capitol is that not making the short list wasn’t a [matter] of not being the right state to do it, but actually just not having the right effort out there to sell the state,” Kalin said. “I think folks from the state were really expecting it to be a formal, RFP, old-school 20th-century process, and the business world doesn’t work so much like that anymore.”

While Haugesag said an “energetic” effort was made to win over Vestas, Kalin said the incident is a example of why the state’s effort to attract “green” industry needs to be better organized and better funded.

Kalin said there was confusion during the Vestas process about who was taking the lead. It turned out it was legislators, he said, “because there’s not really capacity in the executive branch — or not commitment — to be a real player at this high level.”

The Vestas miss, as well as conversations with the Blue-Green Alliance, a coalition of the Sierra Club and United Steelworkers, helped prompt Kalin and Peterson to submit a bill that would increase the amount of money and attention spent on recruiting green-collar jobs to Minnesota.

“We need to be on top of this, and we need to be moving as quickly as we can,” Kalin said.

House File 3999 would start a task force similar to the one recently organized by the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It would also open existing business infrastructure and job skills development grants to any company that helps the state meet its environmental goals. And it calls on the commerce and economic development departments to partner on a report identifying how all existing grant and loan programs can be used to target the “green” economy.

Kalin said he’s very optimistic the measures will pass this session.

“Right now we all need to work together to identify how we can overcome some challenges in making Minnesota a leader across the board in the green economy,” Kalin said. “As a business venture, and the state is a business venture in some ways on this stuff, we have to do this together, and we have to be all on the same page.”