“More than half of all U.S. container traffic now passes through the Chicago area, so much that our region has emerged as the world’s third busiest intermodal hub, surpassed only by the great Asian seaports of Hong Kong and Singapore” (“Critical Cargo,” an April 2002 report from the Business Leaders for Transportation and the Metropolitan Planning Council).
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Banks now see the unbanked “as potential customers,” according to Doug Tillett and Liz Handlin of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, reporting on a November 14 conference the bank hosted (“Chicago Fed Letter,” January). Some banks are accepting forms of identification they haven’t in the past and have started working with churches and schools. “The [Chicago Public Schools] and its chief financial officer, Ken Gotsch, have taken a different approach to helping employees who do not have bank accounts. In a pilot program, CPS has arranged to pay employees via debit cards if they do not have a direct deposit account at a financial institution. This will result in efficiencies and cost savings for CPS and an important first step for many CPS employees in developing a relationship with a mainstream financial services provider.”
“Energy-efficiency technologies, ranging from efficient lighting and ballasts to Energy Star appliances to state-of-the-art industrial motors, can save business and residential customers money,” reports the Environmental Law & Policy Center of the Midwest in its new report “Job Jolt: The Economic Impacts of ‘Repower the Midwest: The Clean Energy Development Plan for the Heartland.’” “On average, these new technologies cost 2.3c per kilowatt-hour, or less, which is below the cost of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity from coal, gas or nuclear plants.” But business will still need a government-administered kick in the right place to do what’s in its own interest. The report also calls for “clean energy development policies, investments and incentives, beginning with ‘Renewable Portfolio Standards’ that require all electric utilities to include a specified percentage of clean renewable energy in the mix of electricity that they supply,” as well as “strong energy efficiency building codes.”
