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How green could be my Valley
by Michael Fitzgerald, Stockton Record
August 5, 2007

Stockton, CA -- For every San Joaquin Valley leader educated and visionary enough to imagine a better way, there are 20 religiously devoted to the status quo.

Yet Valley unemployment is 7-8 percent, while elsewhere in the state it's 4.5-5 percent. Median incomes are lower. We don't need people to create the Valley's future out of its past.

So it is of great interest that Congressman Jerry McNerney, calling Stockton "an unpolished jewel," is honorary chair of the "2007 Economic Summit: Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Renewable Energy" Aug. 22 at the University of the Pacific.

Produced by Washington's Public Forum Institute, the purpose is "to discuss spurring economic growth in San Joaquin County, particularly through the use and production of clean energy technology."

"I tell you," McNerney, reached in Washington last week, said expansively, "we're going to turn Stockton into a great business center."

McNerney wants Stockton to build on its attributes and become a leader in clean energy technology.

What attributes? Its closeness to Silicon Valley, and Oakland's port, its transit network, Pacific itself, Altamont wind power, bio-fuel plants going into the Port of Stockton and thousands of skilled workers commuting.

What's cool is not only the prospect of green jobs but modifying Stockton's underachieving method of increasing prosperity: instead of only luring jobs, making jobs. "If we can create jobs and investment and interest in Stockton and San Joaquin County, this region is really going to take off," McNerney said.

Panelists include area business leaders, executives from Akeena Solar and enXco wind power company, and McNerney himself, an energy consultant.

Stockton, McNerney said, "has a history that's proud, it has resources, it has great people. I just think we can make this a prosperous center that the rest of the state looks to and admires. And it's important that people believe that."

Do they? Chuck Williams, Dean of Pacific's Eberhardt School of Business, said many components are required for a region to become an industry "hot spot."

"When you have a hot spot, you have a critical mass of creative people, of engineers, of managers, venture capital and financiers," Williams said.

"And in this day and age when people like to conclude that place doesn't matter - that's wrong. Place still does matter."

Mike Locke, president-CEO of the San Joaquin Partnership, said McNerney has real green energy expertise. So, "his contacts may be beneficial in terms of business development and providing job expansion here."

McNerney understands any skepticism: "We have to show results. We have to show some job creation." But, he said, "people are ready for this. People really see the potential. Americans, people in Stockton, the Valley, they see this."

And, "if we wait too long," he added, "it'll go somewhere else."

Learn more about the 2007 Economic Summit: Cultivating Job Growth Through Innovation, Entrepreneurship and New Energy Technology.

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