Champions of Change Blog

Building a New Streetcar Industry in the United States

Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

I cannot begin to express what an honor it is to be recognized as a Champion of Change. I am thrilled that our efforts to “Make it in America” are creating an impact, and will hopefully facilitate the return of more jobs to the United States.

Upon discovering all modern streetcars were imported, I knew that we could create and offer an alternative for communities to serve their transportation and urban circulating needs.  United Streetcar was formed to build the first modern streetcars manufactured in the United States in over 59 years. Since the formation of United Streetcar, a subsidiary of Oregon Iron Works, I have come to discover just what an impact manufacturing jobs have on our economy. Oregon Iron Works is aworld-class metal fabricator, with factories in Oregon and Washington.  Backed by an experienced and capable work force, we decided to enter the modern streetcar market and create the building blocks of a new manufacturing industry right here in the USA.

Between Oregon Iron Works and United Streetcar, we employ a highly skilled and productive workforce of over 400 people.  We successfully compete in this market as demonstrated through executed contracts worth more than $50 million from the cities of Portland and Tucson. The creation of a new manufacturing industry in the United States is due to a true public-private partnership with United Streetcar investing millions of dollars, along with support of our federal, state, and local partners. Through this partnership, we have in sourced jobs away from Europe and brought them back to the United States, solidifying a new industry in which we have hundreds of suppliers across the United States now building parts for modern streetcars. We certainly would not be this successful without our workers and management who have been focused on the importance of manufacturing in the United States since our founding in 1944. US workers are some of the most productive and skilled in the world, and I am proud not only to lead United Streetcar, but also to serve on the US Manufacturing Council and I will continue to work hard to support domestic manufacturing throughout this amazing country.

Proud to be a Part of the Green Economy

Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

I am truly honored to be included with such a prestigious group of innovators who are making it in America.

At Viridity Energy, we are proud to be a part of the green economy.  Viridity Energy enables large electricity customers to serve as “virtual power plants” that can earn substantial revenues from wholesale electricity markets while directly benefiting from energy supply cost savings through efficient energy use. Our continued growth is based on the strategy that grounds all successful business models—first defining and then answering customer needs. Most businesses know that they want to manage their energy more efficiently to reduce costs and meet sustainability goals. But what many don’t know is that there are opportunities to not only reduce their energy burden, but also to tap into opportunities to earn revenues from wholesale markets that would otherwise have gone unused. It is connecting all of these goals with the tools to immediately take action that truly allows for an opportunity for comprehensive change.