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Former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt

Gephardt says must learn energy facts

By STEPHANIE HARRIS-SMITH
Published: Monday, July 21, 2008 1:58 PM CDT
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The suggestion that Americans must grasp a few concepts before the fuel and environmental crises facing world today can be controlled was the general idea behind the speech given on coal by former U.S. House majority leader Richard Gephardt on Thursday evening at the Hope Fair Park Coliseum.

The speech was part of the Clean Coal Conference that took place Thursday and Friday at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope. Hope City Mayor Dennis Ramsey and Hempstead County Judge Wallace Martin were also present to sign a proclamation stating Thursday, July 17, to be Clean Coal Technology Day in Hope. Following the signing, State Representative David “Bubba” Powers, D-Hope, gave the introduction to the former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader, who began to address the issue of clean coal technology.

“The first thing we need to do is deal with the facts. Sometimes when we talk about energy we go off on some wild tangent and someone will say, ‘Well if we just put wind mills everywhere we would not have to worry about any of this.' Well that would be great if it was true, but it just is not true,” Gephardt said.

He also seemed to focus some on the idea that people want to oversimplify the answers.

“Then somebody says, ‘Well let's get bigger solar panels and that will solve the problem.' Well, it isn't true. Can we make strides in solar? Absolutely and we are doing that, but that is not the answer to the problem. The truth is to meet our energy needs, which are growing by the minute, we've got to have coal and we've got to have nuclear,” he said.

Gephardt seemed to touch on the very core of what is affecting Americans today, by pointing out “four dollar gasoline prices.”

He said some Americans have given up driving, food, and other commodities needed to function in the world today, just to fill up a tank of gas and go to work.

He said the second thing Americans need to do is understand the difference between energy produced from domestic products such as coal, nuclear and oil, or liquefied natural gas that comes from other places.

“Let me say again $7 billion a year goes from the United States to the rest of the world, and often to unfriendly countries to pay for the oil that we are using and it is only going to go higher,” he said.

He stressed the importance of finding new ways to compete.

“We will never solve the global warming issue just in the United States. We are a little bitty country in a great big world. China will open three hundred coal fired plants this year. They open a new coal plant every five days, we are going to build three new coal plants in the U.S. this year. They are going to build 300,” he said.

Gephardt emphasized engaging heavy technological research to make use of coal fired plants in a safe manner for the environment.

“There is never going to be a day when we do not need oil in this country. The question is: How much and can you replace some of that oil through domestic sources of energy? And, the answer is yes, we can, and we can do it and solve global warming at the same time,” he said.

Chris Thomason, Franklin McLarty, Tony Yocom, Charles Welch

McLarty: Match vision with resources

By KEN McLEMORE
Published: Thursday, June 19, 2008 1:48 PM CDT
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Hope Star Editor

Hope and Hempstead County must provide for a more regional approach to economic development that is matched with dedicated resources to successfully compete with other regions in Arkansas, the vice chairman of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission told members of the Hempstead County Economic Development Corp. here Wednesday.

Franklin McLarty, of Little Rock, also said in an interview after his presentation to some 150 business, political and education leaders that Hempstead County should be the natural nexus of that regional approach.

“I think, generally, the location, the fact that you are the natural mid-point here in Hope between Little Rock and Dallas, and Dallas and Memphis provides a lot of opportunities there,” McLarty said. “I think you have a strong logistics opportunity here with rail and so forth; and, I think that being at the Ark-La-Tex crossroads of three contiguous states provides a lot of logistics and transportation and manufacturing opportunities.”

He built upon themes developed in his prepared remarks to emphasize the unique aspects of Hope and Hempstead County.

“I think Hope has a wonderful history,” he said. “All the way from the White House to the Governor's Mansion, to wonderful history of corporate citizens, like Klipsch speakers, who were really transformative in their industries. I think there is a rich history there of business, civic and political leadership; and, those are all things that can be leveraged, as well as the great quality of life from the Hope Watermelon Festival to the bluegrass festivals and other things done here on a regular basis.”

But, location and quality of life alone will no longer create economic development in a globalized economy, McLarty said.

“At the end of the day, you don't have to look any further than Northwest Arkansas or Central Arkansas to see that regions prosper or die together,” he said.

McLarty referred to the pending announcement of a major industrial development in Conway on Thursday as a case in point.

“I don't think it's any coincidence that it's going to happen on the campus of UCA, going back to economic development and edcuation; but, there is no question that they did not just look within the city limits of Conway, they looked at the region of Central Arkansas and saw a lot of things that attracted them,” he said. “So, I think things like the Texarkana Regional Inititiave are important; because, in this day and age, even with gas prices, people can easily drive 15 minutes or 30 minutes to a job in a different city from where they wake up and go to bed.

“While every city has to fight for its own opportunities the best it can, if something happens regionally that's positive, you've got to still count that as a win,” McLarty said.

Successful economic development now requires dedicated resources, he said.

“There is the old adage that: ‘You've got to put your money where your mouth is,'” McLarty said.

He commended local voters for supporting a sales tax to fund construction of a new auditorium/conference center at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope.

“I would encourage all of you that when opportunities come up at the voting booth or in local discussions to dedicate additional funding to economic development opportunities that you feel are worthwhile; you've got to be willing to put resources there,” McLarty said. “When you look coast to coast, communities that have done well when it comes to gathering new and retaining old industries are the ones who are consistently willing to dedicate dollars to do so.

“Not give-aways or corporate welfare systems; but, simply saying, ‘We want to sit down at the table and figure out a way to make something happen,'” he added.

The AEP/Southwestern Electric Power Co. John W. Turk, Jr., Power Plant at Fulton is an example, McLarty said.

“When about $1.5 billion has an opportunity to come to your area, do you need to think about the environmental impact? Absolutely; none of that needs to be out of the window. But, you need to sit down at the table with the mindset of ‘What can we do to make this work?,' not trying to find obstacles as to why it can't,” he said.

McLarty said that kind of vision does not demand capitulation of concerns, but it requires the ability to reach consensus.

“It doesn't mean they laid down and gave business everything they wanted, but that they had a good, collaborative discussion,” he said.

And, that requires local communities to do their homework. McLarty said that, at one time, companies contacted the AEDC for marketing demographics; but, that is no longer the case as communities have discovered the Internet.

“It's a different game than it was 10 years ago,” he said. “Ten years ago, people called AEDC and they wanted information. Now, when someone calls AEDC, they've been doing the research in many cases for 90 days, and they know all the information. They've already made some decisions about who is on their short list of opportunities they may or may want to look at, and it is the AEDC's job at that point to help promote our sites over some of the other competitive sites.

“So, I think having all that information on the Internet, keeping it up-to-date, and making sure that you present yourself well, because the research component of economic development is all done before (HCEDC President) Wesley Woodard, (Hope/Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director) Mark Keith, myself, or anybody else gets the call,” McLarty explained.

McLarty also said workforce education such as that being developed at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope cannot be over-emphasized in economic development.

“The fact that two-year institutions are there to serve as a springboard toward a four-year degree, or to get someone straight into into the workforce in a good-paying job and a long-term career track, that cannot be over-emphasized when you talk about economic development,” he said.

The values within a community are evident in its approach to growth, he said.

“Opportunity, responsibility and community are all intertwined when it comes to economic development,” McLarty said. “The values that were instilled in my great-grandparents, my grandparents, my parents, and then on to me, were very much tied to the values of this business community years ago and still today.”

That continues to carry over in the business presence of the McLarty interests in Hope and Southwest Arkansas, he said.

“And, let me assure you that me and my family are shoulder to shoulder with you in the efforts for a better and more prosperous Southwest Arkansas,” he said.

McLarty is the son of Hope native Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, III, and is vice president of The McLarty Companies and RLJ-McLarty-Landers Automotive Group in Little Rock which maintains investments in Hope Auto Co. and First Choice Autoplex in Hope and automotive dealerships in Texarkana.