Originally printed in The Charlotte Observer on August 1st.

Last week I joined 6 fellow NC citizens in DC to convince our senators to pass a comprehensive energy bill. As you can probably guess, those who support it welcomed us, and those who don’t listened with glazed expressions.

Our group of six represented not only a wide geographical area of our state, but also diverse perspectives. We were a retired veteran who served in the Iraq War, two executives of a large solar finance/installation company, two directors from the NC Wildlife Federation, and me: a small manufacturing business owner. My particular outlook comes from operating a local manufacturing business, TS Designs. NAFTA taught us the importance of local sourcing, which is why over 90% of our products are made in the US, 70% right here in NC. For the same reason, we also understand the importance of taking control of our own energy sources, which is why we have been making biodiesel from local waste vegetable oil for over 7 years, and installed two solar arrays and a wind turbine at our facility.

Richard Nixon was the first president to call for the reduction of our dependence on foreign oil, and every president since has echoed his sentiment. Even so, we now import well over 50% of the oil we consume here in the states. That’s over $1 billion per day sent to countries controlled by unstable, hostile regimes that don’t share our values and are at odds with our interests. While in DC, I had the chilling experience of hearing from a retired general and an Iraq War veteran who experienced American soldiers killed by weapons likely funded by US dollars.

Each day the senate delays on a comprehensive energy plan that focuses on non-petroleum-based fuels, our enemies are enriched. Now is the time for bold action. Many say the solution is to drill here. For the moment, ignore any argument you’ve heard about climate change and environmental damage and simply consider this: we consume 25% of the world’s oil, but at most have access to only 2% of the world’s remaining supply. Economics 101 testifies that as we drain that supply, prices will only continue to increase unless we lower demand.

The best way to enact change in a capitalist society is by voting with your dollar. But there are simply no currently viable alternatives to petroleum-based fuels on the market to vote for, and corporations only have one responsibility: to maximize value for their shareholders, not to look out for the long-term welfare of the American People.

No matter how involved you believe the government should be in our lives, most people agree on one thing: the government is responsible for defending Americans from enemies, both foreign and domestic. Our demand for foreign oil is a direct security threat to our country. We need Congress to lay the groundwork for a sustainable energy future for America and let the market take over from there.

by Eric Henry and Eric Michel

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for our small business: healthcare shopping time! TS Designs is looking at yet another health insurance rate increase this year. The private sector healthcare system is not working for us.

Ever since Tom and I started the company we have offered our employees healthcare. We pay for 50% of the individual’s cost and as the years have gone by and rates have increased so have the number of employees who have had to drop out.

We’re getting squeezed from a couple directions. First, we are a very small group; less than 20 people compared to the 100+ employees we had before NAFTA. Second, we are an older group with some serious pre-existing conditions – even a COBRA ex-employee that has health issues in the family is hurting our rate. It looks like we will be staying with Blue Cross & Blue Shield North Carolina, the largest in our state.

BCBSNC is a nonprofit healthcare company but is making so much money on their plans they paid their CEO, Bob Greczyn, almost $4 million last year, a $750,000 raise from the year before. They are planning an 11% rate increase this year. Why not give that excess back to their customers?

I would have no problem with his compensation if this were a competitive market, but in the US healthcare is not competitive. We need to remove the exemption from anti-trust laws the healthcare companies enjoy. Traditional market competition ideals do not apply to an industry that bases its decisions on risk pooling. In our system, the goal of profit-driven healthcare companies is not to provide healthcare, but to deny as many claims as possible to maximize profit. As economist Paul Krugman wrote, “The most successful companies are those that do the best job of denying coverage to those who need it most.”

Unless something is done, healthcare at TS Designs, and thousands of other small businesses, will become a casualty. And we’ll all share in those losses since the health issues will not go away. The number of uninsured will rise, bankruptcies due to healthcare will increase, and healthcare costs themselves will continue to creep higher and higher.

We need a public option to bring competition to the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry and their lobbyists clearly have the bucks to compete with it.

With all the discussions going on about potential changes in healthcare and energy costs on the rise, we at TSD are looking back at how we started working to mitigate those upcoming challenges years ago.

Not a day goes by that we aren’t asked why our t-shirts cost more. Our NC-made, organic cotton, responsibly-printed/dyed shirts are about $12/piece versus an overseas-manufactured, conventional cotton, PVC/phthalate-printed shirt at about $8/piece.

Part of the journey to be a more sustainable company is understanding your real cost, to people, planet, and bottom line. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which businesses do not have to recognize all their external costs and consumers don’t understand how those costs are ultimately passed on to them. Here’s to the hundreds of our clients who have figured it out, and support us with their business.

To my wife, family, friends, employees and associates:
I AM WRITING, not so much to influence your opinion about the coming elections, but to share sincerely held views with those I love and respect. I am concerned about the sharp divisions that have developed in our country; but at the same time I am encouraged at least [...]