news of the week FEBRUARY 3, 20 14 EDITED BY CHERYL HOGUE & CRAIG BETTENHAUSEN
OBAMA LAYS OUT HIS PLANS
three-dimensional printing. Another in Raleigh, N.C., is working on power electronics. This year, Obama wants to launch six more centers. The President also exhorted Congress to restore basic research funding that was cut out of last year’s STATE OF THE UNION: President appropriation. Obama said research funding enhances proposes small steps, unilateral action U.S. innovation and will help to “unleash the next great that will impact the chemical enterprise American discovery.” In a nod to jobs and economic expansion, Obama urged Congress to give his Administration broader N HIS JAN. 28 State of the Union address, Presiauthority to hammer out trade deals. He called on lawdent Barack Obama offered a series of small steps makers to act quickly as the U.S. negotiates with the that, if taken, could result in significant conseEuropean Union and Pacific Rim nations on two new quences for the chemical enterprise. These include free-trade agreements. spurring the growth of new technologies and increas“We need to work together on tools like bipartisan ing R&D spending. trade promotion authority to protect our workers, protect our environment, and open new markets to new goods stamped ‘Made in the USA,’ ” Obama said. “China and Europe aren’t standing on the sidelines. Neither should we.” That view is popular with the chemical industry, particularly the Society of Chemical Manufacturers & Affiliates. Access to foreign markets, SOCMA notes, is critical for chemical industry growth. On the other hand, SOCMA and other industry groups oppose use of unilateral presidential action. Obama also touched on patent reform, another key area for chemical companies. He urged Congress to pass patent reform legislation that would allow U.S. businesses to avoid costly litigation. In addition, the President promised to cut red tape to encourage construction of new chemical plants to take advantage of the recent flood of U.S. natural gas. The natural gas bonanza has reduced U.S. carbon dioxide emissions, Obama noted. Still, he said, “we have Overall, compared with previous years’ agendas, to act with more urgency—because a changing climate this one is scaled back. But it included a promise to use is already harming western communities struggling presidential authorities to bypass the congressional with drought and coastal cities dealing with floods.” infighting and gridlock that have dogged his tenure in “Climate change is a fact,” the President firmly statoffice. ed. “And when our children’s children look While he is “eager” to work with Congress, us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to Obama said, “America does not stand still— leave them a safer, more stable world, with and neither will I,” referring to his willingness “China and new sources of energy, I want us to be able Europe aren’t to say, ‘Yes, we did.’ ” to use executive orders to achieve change. standing on The President continued his push from The theme of Obama’s hour-plus speech the past few years for new manufacturing the sidelines. was the plight of ordinary Americans and innovation institutes. Last year, he sought the inequities in pay and future opportuNeither the creation of some 15 institutes that bring nities they face, which is slowly drawing should we.” together industry, academia, and local govgreater national attention. ernments to work on fundamental manufac“Our job,” Obama stressed, “is to reverse turing research. But Congress didn’t go along. these trends. What I offer tonight is a set of concrete, Obama moved ahead anyway, using existing Departpractical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the ments of Defense and Energy funding. Two centers are middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity.”— up and running. One in Youngstown, Ohio, focuses on JEFF JOHNSON, GLENN HESS & ANDREA WIDENER
LARRY DOWNING/CNP/ADMED IA/N EWSCOM
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Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Jan. 28 as Vice President Joseph R. Biden (left) and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) listen.
CEN.ACS.ORG
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FEBRUARY 3, 2014
