In July 2008, TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP Ltd., announced Keystone XL, an approximately $7 billion pipeline project which would almost double the size and capacity of the company’s pipeline system connecting oil supply regions in Canada with U.S. refineries and distribution networks. The project comprises an approximately 1,661-mile, 36-inch crude oil pipeline stretching from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast Region in Texas.
Despite clear advantages in terms of job creation, cost improvement, and enhanced security, the project has not yet been approved by the U.S. Department of State. In fact, the permit review of the project was delayed by almost a full year from the originally announced schedule.
In a prior study, we determined that the total impact of the construction and development phases of the Keystone XL project on the U.S. economy would include (over the life of the project) $20.931 billion in total spending, $9.605 billion in output, and 118,935 person-years of employment. These were calculated at that time in constant (2009) dollars and rise slightly when adjusted to a 2011-dollar basis ($21.979 billion in total spending and $10.087 billion in output). The delays in the permitting process have cost business activity (on a net present value basis) of $1.19 billion in spending and $559 million in output, as well as postponing 88,622 person-years of employment. Job deferrals for states along the route vary, but most states have seen in excess of 5,000 person-years of employment (one person working for one year) delayed during a difficult economic period. View more on Ray Perryman Column.
A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals.
On The Road in North Platte
A week or two after launching four new groups in North Platte I'm still thinking about the amazing public health system in Nebraska.
The four teams we are working with from north central Nebraska are all rural. Very rural. In fact they would tell you that they don't have enough population to count as rural: most of their counties are "frontier," a few with densities of less than one person per square mile. The health districts themselves have only been around for ten years. The state used tobacco settlement money to establish public health infrastructure.
The teams are working on great public health prevention issues: restaurant inspections (a role not in the public health portfolio in some areas), dental sealants for kids, healthy workplace products, sustainable plans for distributing vaccinations (flu and whatever comes next).
In all four cases they are working hard to find the sustainable revenue stream to support their work over the long haul.
One more thing they all share: great partnerships. Before there were health districts, many of these rural areas had health coalitions of health-conscious partners. As a result, the health leaders in these areas all think very deeply about how to engage and empower their partners. And the partners respond.
To me, the trip it felt like a glimpse at the origins of public health agencies: energy and green shoots and wide-open spaces for the community service mission to express itself.
--Stephen Orton
Wanted to share this email with you from Nancy Cripps, long-time staffer to the Management Academy.
It is with both joy and sadness I send this email. I am retiring on Friday, September 9.
Forty years ago, I embarked on a vocational path looking for a meaningful career. From a telephone operator, to sales representative to administrative assistant. However, I would not know what meaningful was until I joined the public health profession. These last 10 years have been the best time of my life because I was working with the most dedicated of all professions. Certainly, public health workers are dedicated to leaving the world a better place.
I also was able to learn from the best of the best. I will be forever grateful for having the best teachers in the country Janet Porter, Steve Orton and Karl Umble. From them, I learned many skills among them are communication, management and relationship building. Best of all, by observing them in action, I learned leadership skills. With those leadership skills, I was able to do community work and will continue that community work in my retirement.
My greatest joy was helping all you, my students, write your own business plans while fulfilling all your other responsibilities. Whether it was a friendly reminder or a word of encouragement, I felt I was helping your communities through you.
I am excited about this new adventure in my life. I promise you I will take all I learned from you to make my own community happier, safer and most of all healthier.
It was an honor and pleasure working with you.
--Nancy Cripps
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)