If you’re like many corporate real estate and strategic planners, energy consumption may be a primary factor in your sights and on your sites. If so, take a look at the recently published "Annual Energy Outlook" (with projections to 2030) from the Energy Information Administration, the 30-year-old statistics agency of the U.S. Dept. of Energy.

"U.S. industry consumes fully one-third of all energy in the United States." So said a May release from the National Association of Manufacturers. "Compared to the other end-use sectors (commercial, residential and transportation), industry consumes 95 percent of coal, 70 percent of renewable fuels, 48 percent of natural gas, 29 percent of electricity and 25 percent of petroleum used in the United States," said the association. "So, whether it comes to finding new energy sources, improving efficiency or diversifying our energy supply, no one has a larger stake than manufacturers to ensure that a dependable supply of affordable energy is available to our country.

Tax liability is always high on the planning list too. Which makes the SEC disclosures related to the FASB’s FIN 48, to be found in a new stream of "unrecognized tax benefits" announcements in quarterly 10-Q reports, extremely relevant. The new rule was put in place to make transparent how much money companies are setting aside in case tax-saving transactions are challenged and overturned by taxing authorities. According to analysis by The Wall Street Journal of a report by Credit Suisse Group, some 361 companies studied have a cumulative $141 billion in tax liabilities. Stuart E. Seigel, former chief counsel of the IRS and now chairman and CEO of Seigel & Associates, LLC, an independent tax-reserve advisory service based in New York City, offered this assessment of the new tax disclosure landscape in this March speech to that city’s Metropolitan Club, "There’s a FIN in the Water: Are Public Companies Shark Bait?"

Dennis Cuneo Dr. Loren Scott

Those who weren’t able to attend Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s Economic Development conference in April in Baton Rouge can access several presentations from the conference. Among the presenters were Dennis Cuneo, a lead site selector for Toyota, and Dr. Loren Scott, who presented at the IAMC Spring Forum on Amelia Island.

Will expansion of the federal R&D tax credit help or hurt your company? That may depend on which legislative bill to accomplish that feat ends up passing this fall, following an initial expansion achieved at the beginning of 2007. A full package of background information on the bills, as well as an updated summary of international R&D tax credit programs for comparison’s sake, can be found at the Web site of the R&D Credit Coalition.

Readers of the Harvard Business Review may find the article "Scorched Earth: Will Environmental Risks in China Overwhelm Its Opportunities?" relevant to site searches encompassing that nation. "Despite the fact that China’s problems can very seriously affect multinationals’ prospects for success, surprisingly few corporations have paid the kind of attention to environmental concerns that they warrant," write Elizabeth Economy and Kenneth Lieberthal. Site Selection readers may recall one that did: DuPont, as it embarks on a $1-billion titanium dioxide plant.

The primary German and French national economic development agencies, with the help of ESCP-EAP European School of Management in Berlin and HEC School of Management in Paris, have released a European Attractiveness Scoreboard. "Avoiding micro-regional analysis, it analyses the EU as whole and will better serve investors whose affiliates will be supported by the consolidated resources of the combined EU economies," reads the introduction.

In April, the yearly cap of 65,000 H-1B visas for foreign workers in the U.S. was reached in two days, with the number of petitions for such permits climbing above 133,000. Meanwhile, immigration legislation measures continue to be debated in legislative chambers, town halls and on editorial pages nationwide. For those wanting the facts on the current conditions for foreign labor certification, be sure to pay a regular visit to the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Web site established for that purpose.

Time to catch up on some summer reading. Among your choices this season is "Land Policies and Their Outcomes," a book compiling the proceedings of the 2006 Land Policy Conference hosted by Cambridge, Mass.-based Lincoln Institute, which does research and convenes scholars and practitioners on land planning and development issues both in the United States and abroad. This year’s conference, "Land Policies and Decentralization," was held June 3-5.

The Michigan-based W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in April released "Reining in the Competition for Capital," a compilation calling for reform in incentives policy for corporate projects, including regulation of site consultants. The full text of the book’s first chapter, by University of Minnesota professor (and the book’s editor) Ann Markusen, contains some provocative observations about the history and practices of the site selection consulting industry. Interested readers may wish to also read a piece published in 2006 by Markusen and Greg Schrock that seeks to define "The Distinctive City" and how such places come to be.

Grubb & Ellis Senior Vice President, Research & Client Services Robert Bach, in his late May bulletin on business capital spending data from the U.S. Census Bureau, reported that "rising business spending plus moderate growth in retail sales point to an increasing volume of goods flowing through corporate supply chains — good news for warehouse-distribution space."