bizjournals: The small business owner's guide to the presidential election -- bizjournals

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Obama, meanwhile, has proposed federal incentives for investmenty in ethanol andbiodiesel refineries, but building more oil refineries doesn't appear to be a priorityu for him. Both candidates also are neglecting the role small businesses can play in solvingvthe nation's energy problems, said Scott who owns a busines s insurance agency in San Francisco and serves on a statw committee implementing California's law capping greenhouser gas emissions. "I don't see either one talking about said Hauge, who also is presiden t of Small Business California, an advocacy organization.
Both McCainh and Obama talk about the role innovationj and entrepreneurs can play in developing alternativd sourcesof energy, but neither offers specifics on what that meanx for small businesses, Hauge said. They also are not addressing the significant contribution small businesses can make by becomingbmore energy-efficient, he said, noting that small businessexs consume about half the energy used for commercial purposes, and abou 30 percent of the energy they use is wasted.
The presidentiap candidates have said nothing about programs that would help smallp businesses useless energy, such as on-bill financing, which woulfd allow small businesses to pay for energy efficiency improvements throughb their monthly electric bills, Hauge said. Both candidates support legislation to cap carbon emissionws and create a system for tradingcarbon credits, althougnh Obama's timetable is more aggressive. Even thougbh now might not be the ideal time to impose such a potentiallyy costly mandate onthe economy, the nation may be runninf out of time to combat global Hauge said.
"If it's really a seriouse problem, it just seems to me you'v e got to find a way to get money tosolvse it," he said. "We'rew talking about the human race here." Both presidential candidated support tax incentives for alternative sources of and thatis good, Donaldson But oil companies also need incentives to drill for oil in hard-to-reacjh places, he said. "Mh car doesn't run on wind." Businesses could expect a lot more union organizing activity if Barackj Obamais elected, and Democrats strengthen theif control of the Senate. Obama is a co-sponsor of legislatiomn to make it much easier for unions toorganize workplaces.
The Employee Free Choice Act would allow unions to representr workers if 51 percent of employees sign a card indicatin g they wanta union. No electiob would be necessary. The bill is the AFL-CIO's top legislativse priority. It passed the House this Congress, but died in the President Bush promised to vetothe bill, and John McCai opposes it. Both contend the legislatio is undemocratic because it denies workers the right to a secret ballot. Giovanni Coratalo, executivee director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's smalk and midmarket business councils, said he has hears more concerns from businesses about the Employee Free Choice Act than any other issu e besidesthe economy.
"Small businesses shouldd be afraidof this," Coratolo said. If the Employee Free Choice Actis "every type of business will be targeted because [organizing] will be so said Keith Ashmus, a partnee in the Cleveland law firm Frantz Ward LLP, who chairs the National Small Business Association's presidential elections task