WASHINGTON--Dell chief Michael Dell and other high-profile technology company CEOs descended on the nation's capital Wednesday with a message for policymakers: do more to encourage energy-efficient practices, but don't spell out specific standards for the products that companies like theirs build.
On behalf of a lobby group known as the Technology CEO Council, Dell, EMC chief Joe Tucci, and Applied Materials head Mike Splinter suggested the government should do more to "lead by example." They said it can do that by reevaluating its own power consumption, setting "high goals" for energy efficiency, awarding presidential medals to companies that excel in using information technology to boost their energy efficiency, and minimizing trade and tariff barriers and maximizing tax incentives for companies with a track record of efficient energy use.
"The industry is moving, the market is moving, but it could and should be moving faster," Bruce Mehlman, the Technology CEO Council's executive director, told reporters during a morning briefing. "This is a good place to help get that message out."
Often, when business leaders ramp up Capitol Hill lobbying, they're attempting to stave off burdensome new regulations, but Mehlman and the executives said there's no particular proposal floating around that troubles them at the moment.
Still, Dell, whose remarks began with a boast about his company's "commitment to being the greenest technology company on the planet," pointed out that there are some things government shouldn't do, such as attempting to establish a "one-size-fits-all mandate for development and design of IT products."
The executives also touted two new studies that convey what some may consider to be a paradox: by their estimation, the rise of technology use has actually helped improve energy efficiency.
One of those reports, commissioned by the Technology CEO Council and produced by economists at the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), argues that for every kilowatt hour of electricity consumed by computers, servers, telecommunications technology, and all manner of gadgets, the U.S. economy increased its overall energy savings by a factor of about 10.
Although that conclusion may seem counterintuitive, it's based on the idea that those gadgets are displacing the need for other energy-consuming activities, resulting in energy savings, said study co-author John Laitner, an economist and former Environmental Protection Agency official. He described an example from his own life: rather than flying to Sweden for a meeting, he recently partook in it from a local office via videoconference. (Laitner also nevertheless acknowledges in the report a "lack of precise data" to back the findings.)
The second report, produced by the Technology CEO Council, lists dozens of examples of products made by its member companies and others that have managed to improve power consumption over the years.
According to the ACEEE report, the information and communications technology sector currently accounts for about 6 percent of the nation's power consumption, up from about 2 percent to 3 percent in 2000. But CEOs like Dell and EMC's Tucci said they're confident that improvements in technology will keep that percentage from growing exponentially in the years to come.
The suggestions, for the record, aren't exactly new. In a report to Congress last August, the EPA suggested the nation could save up to $4 billion in energy costs if it made its data centers more energy-efficient. The agency also predicted that the amount of power used by U.S. data centers, which consumed 1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption in 2006, would more than double over the next five years, at a cost of $7.4 billion each year.
SAN FRANCISCO--The AeA (American Electronics Association) plans to expand its focus on government technology policy to include many more individual states, the trade group said Thursday.
After spending much of its history lobbying for governmental policy favorable to the industry at the federal level and in a few key states with high-tech centers--California, Texas, Florida, New York, Massachusetts--the group says the current legislative environment requires more.
At a meeting of member companies here, new CEO Christopher Hansen said that it's necessary the AeA expand beyond those traditional tech meccas. "Legislation affects this industry in a lot of places you wouldn't expect," he told a small gathering of reporters.
That's because states are finding themselves confronted with not only tech companies manufacturing products within their confines, but voters who want policy on spam, spyware, child Internet safety, electronic recycling, and more.
There's a lot going on locally, and each state may take a different tack on the same issue. For example, there are 12 different states with e-waste management laws on the books as of last summer, according to the Congressional Research Service. While one may focus on landfill policy, others may determine how specific hazardous materials are disposed of, and who pays for e-waste removal and recycling.
Even though Hansen said he'd prefer to have a uniform federal policy on issues like electronic waste laws so companies don't have to have a different product or program for each of the 50 states, the states demand his group's attention. "The fact of the matter is, that's where things move," he said.
Though most state lawmakers are just getting back to business, there are some key issues coming up this year that will likely be highly debated in most states. According to Jim Wall, the chair of the AeA's State Government Affairs program and regional government affairs director for Microsoft, that includes environmental policy, RFID tags, privacy, taxation on digital goods, workforce, and education.
Robby is the happier one of the two.
(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)MORGAN HILL, Calif.--What do you do if your company has raised $291 million in venture funds and you're still waiting for your market to take off?
You buy replica robots that starred in movies from the 1950s.
At least that's what Alien Technology, based here, did. The company's previous CEO bought these two gems, which sit in the headquarters lobby. (The company is currently headed up by Fujitsu and Apple alum George Everhart.)
Ringo was underrated, says Gort.
(Credit: Michael Kanellos/CNET News.com)The roundish one, that looks like Bib the Michelin Man wearing a hat that pipes beer from two cans into your mouth, is Robby the Robot. He had a supporting role in Forbidden Planet, loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest. Later, he became a cult figure, landed a few more acting gigs, and settled down into the autograph circuit before being replicated. You can turn him on and he goes through a light show of sorts.
The smooth one, meanwhile, is Gort. In The Day the Earth Stood Still, he came down to our planet to incinerate people because we couldn't live in peace. In the '70s, he appeared on an album cover with Ringo Starr. The 1970s-- it was a turbulent time in America.
If it wasn't official before, we have it in writing now: Microsoft is directing at least a small fraction of its massive (by tech industry standards) lobbying shop toward Google's proposed purchase of DoubleClick.
Thomas Boggs
(Credit: Patton Boggs)
According to
Their charge, according to the paperwork? "Competitive issues surrounding Google-DoubleClick merger."
As the Federal Trade Commission continues to weigh whether the the $3.1 billion deal passes antitrust muster, Microsoft has made no secret of its concerns, which center on claims that the merger raises serious competitive questions in the online-ad space.
Google, meanwhile, has repeatedly said it's confident that the acquisition will benefit consumers and that the threat from its rival can be contained.
Although the filing is marked as received on August 9, the "effective date" of the lobbyists' registration is actually May 15. That's around the same time Google disclosed that it had picked up four new lobbyists, including a former high-ranking Department of Justice antitrust lawyer, to help make the case for its buy. Neither company has agreed to talk in more detail about its lobbying efforts.
It wasn't immediately clear whether the timing of Microsoft's latest lobbying filing has anything to do with sealing its own ad buy--a $6 billion takeover of the firm Aquantive--last Friday. That deal had already cleared an antitrust waiting period with federal regulators.
The Associated Press first noted Microsoft's new disclosure in a Wednesday story.
Earlier this week, we explored the political assault on Google bubbling up from an unlikely mix of companies and consumer groups--and noted none of its top executives had paid any recent personal visits to Capitol Hill in support of their company's practices.
Well, we may have spoken too soon.
On Thursday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt descended on Capitol Hill for meetings with a number of members from both chambers, the firm's Public Policy Blog reports. The list of seemingly wide-open topics included "health care, patent reform, immigration, privacy and consumer issues."
So what about the two topics that have arguably landed Google the most attention among the Washington set these days: challenges to its proposed DoubleClick acquisition and its "open access" stance in an upcoming auction of coveted wireless spectrum?
The search giant isn't telling. A spokesman reached by CNET News.com on Friday declined to reveal more details about the substance of the meetings, except to characterize the discussions as "wide-ranging."
Schmidt started his East Coast jaunt earlier this week in Charleston, S.C., where he witnessed the first Democratic presidential debate to take cues from video questions posed by users of Google's YouTube service. And last weekend, he spoke about education at an annual gathering of the National Governors Association in Traverse City, Mich., Google said.
As it awaits the green light from federal antitrust regulators, Google disclosed this week in a government filing that it is putting new lobbying muscle, including a former high-ranking Justice Department antitrust lawyer, behind its proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of online ad-tech company DoubleClick.
According to documents dated Thursday, the company has brought on four attorneys from the Washington D.C. branch of the law firm Brownstein Hyatt & Farber, including Makan Delrahim, who was appointed deputy assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division in July 2003 and shifted to private practice about two years later.
In a section on the lobbyist disclosure document labeled "specific lobbying issues," the company lists "DoubleClick transaction." The filing was reported earlier on Friday by the Associated Press.
The other attorneys listed on the form--Alexander Dahl, James Flood and Alfred Mottur--have significant experience either with the Justice Department, key U.S. Senate committees, or in some cases, both, according to their biographies at the Brownstein Hyatt & Farber Web site.
Google's move arrives as federal authorities have announced an antitrust investigation into the massive deal, which has already an uproar from consumer privacy advocates and concern from the search giant's rivals. But Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a speech earlier this week that he expects the deal to close by year's end despite the probe.
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