Recent spikes in steel prices have sprinkled healthy dividends on southwest Pennsylvania's steel industry, Gov. Rendell says. "We've gotten a tremendous boost from the resurgence of steel," he says. As if to illustrate his point, Timken Latrobe Steel

USG Makes Big Investment in Montour County As the national residential and commercial building surge continues, a number of drywall plants have sprung up next to power plants across the country in order to make use of their synthetic gypsum byproducts. The trend continued in early August when Chicago-based U.S. Gypsum announced it would build a $180-million, 660,000-sq.-ft. (61,314-sq.-m.) manufacturing plant in Washingtonville, next to the PPL Montour Power Plant in central Pennsylvania. In this case, the synthetic gypsum byproduct is a byproduct of PPL's decision to spend more than $700 million to install scrubbers at its largest coal-fired units.       USG Chairman, President and CEO William C. Foote said, "Many of our key customers in the region are experiencing consistently high rates of growth related to the robust housing and construction markets, and the Washingtonville plant will help serve that growth in the years ahead." He cited convenient highway and rail loading access as contributing factors to the siting decision.       The plant will employ 150 people when it is up and running in 2008. USG operates 40 plants in the U.S., and is currently rebuilding another facility in Norfolk, Va.

recently unveiled its newly modernized continuous rolling mill in Latrobe, an undertaking brought about by a $22-million operating lease the company arranged.
      Under Gov. Rendell's leadership, the state is also breathing new life into its historic role as a U.S. energy leader. Pennsylvania's Advanced Energy Portfolio Standards, which set ambitious targets for the state's public sector to utilize alternative energy sources, piqued the interest of Spain's Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA. Last year, the wind energy company placed its U.S. headquarters and Eastern business development office at separate locations in Philadelphia. Then, in January 2005, it announced plans for a 194,000-sq.-ft. (18,023-sq.-m.), $25-million plant that will produce windmill turbine blades. By mid-July, operating under the name Fiberblade, LLC, the company was readying a 22-acre (8.9-hectare) parcel at the South Park Industrial Complex for construction, according to Ron Budash, executive director of the Cambria County Industrial Development Corp., which operates the park. Gamesa, which also develops wind farms, is working with state officials and utility providers to build 1,000 megawatts of wind generating capacity by 2010.
      "Gamesa came because of where we were policy-wise," explains Eugene DePasquale, deputy secretary at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which has spearheaded state efforts to recruit Gamesa and other alternative energy companies. DePasquale believes similarly exciting opportunities surround the use of clean-burning coal, solar and hydro-electric power. Though other states have adopted comparable alternative energy standards, Pennsylvania is unique in its integration of such measures into an industrial recruitment strategy. "In most places, this is sold as environmental safety," he explains. "We were the first to frame it in terms of job creation."
      With 49 Pennsylvania counties listed as EPA non-attainment areas, a designation that hamstrings efforts to build many types of industrial facilities, the state's clean energy program might also free up possibilities for the state's broader manufacturing economy, DePasquale believes. For now, efforts are focused on Gamesa, which is eyeing yet another Pennsylvania location for a tower plant, and the plethora of European suppliers that can be recruited as a result of Gamesa's extensive presence. "Some of their suppliers are already moving here," says Tim Nuhfer, manager of economic development for FirstEnergy. In addition to working closely with Gamesa on moving wind power onto the state's grid, FirstEnergy will supply electricity to the company's South Park operation.