Springfield Business Journal_2021-02-22

Affordable energy is important for our entire country, but it’s especially important where we live – for families, farmers, manufacturers and small- business owners. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden has started his administration off with a rush to reinstate some of the worst Obama-era energy policies. These are policies that will destroy jobs, raise costs and make us less competitive at a time when we’re fighting for our economy. Within hours of taking office, Biden issued an executive order halting the Keystone XL pipeline. As a result, the company building the pipeline said it would stop construction and lay off more than a thousand workers. In October, the company had announced plans to hire more than 7,000 union workers and said it expected to employ roughly 11,000 Americans this year. As the leader of the American Federation of La- bor and Congress of Industrial Organizations re- cently put it, the president’s order “did and will cost us jobs.” Even President Barack Obama’s State Department said, after a thorough review, that the pipeline would have no significant impact on the environment. Thousands of jobs lost, nothing gained. In another move on his first day in office, Biden unilaterally recommitted the U.S. to the Paris Cli- mate Agreement. In 2015, Obama completely ig- nored the Senate’s constitutional role to advise and consent on treaties and entered the U.S. into this agreement. I opposed this move in 2015, and I op- pose it now. The Paris Agreement seeks to eliminate the use of coal, an affordable energy source that Missou- rians have historically relied on to power more than 80% of our electricity. Getting rid of coal means higher energy prices. It amounts to a new energy tax. The agreement also requires the U.S. to send billions of taxpayer dollars to developing countries under the name of “climate mitigation assistance.” Third, the Biden administration has banned new leases for oil and gas production on public lands and offshore waters. If this leads to a total ban on energy production on federal territory, one analysis estimated it could cost 1 million jobs by 2022. By 2030, U.S. gross domestic product could be cut by a cumulative $700 billion. It would mean we likely would have to import energy from overseas – send- ing American jobs to places like China, Russia, Ven- ezuela and the Middle East. According to the Energy Information Adminis- tration, the U.S. became a net total energy exporter in 2019, a feat last achieved in 1952. The Biden en- ergy ban could wipe out our energy independence. These early moves do not bode well for what’s ahead. Before the pandemic, America had the strongest economy and most favorable regulatory environ- ment we had seen in decades,. I’ll do everything I can to fight policies that hurt families and stand in the way of our recovery. U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, can be reached through Blunt.Senate.gov. SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 23 FEB. 22-28, 2021 OPINION Enough with the marketing mumbo jumbo Biden makes job-destroying energy moves I f your business can’t explain a concept or product succinctly in layman’s terms, you probably have a marketing problem on your hands. Let’s face it. The world is complicat- ed enough. It shouldn’t be a struggle for a potential customer to understand the basics of what you’re trying to sell. If the messaging isn’t clear, you’ll lose at least some business. A recent instance came up when my dad recently asked me whether I knew anything about ZoomIn- fo Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: ZI). He was looking at buying some shares. Other than immediately thinking it was the video service – that’s Zoom Video Communica- tions Inc. (Nasdaq: ZM) – I hadn’t heard of the company. So as one does, I Googled it and went to the company’s website. Holy buzzwords and mar- keting lingo, Batman! “ZoomInfo puts best-in-class data and tech- nology at the epicenter of business productiv- ity, innovation and growth,” the website reads. “Through flexible data API and our industry leading go-to-market platform, ZoomInfo sup- ports growth within enterprise organizations. ZoomInfo’s platform and data easily integrates in common sales, marketing and recruiting technol- ogies and custom applications.” I consider myself to be fairly learned in technolo- gy, but it’s a slog reading through that. ZoomInfo’s Google business profile simplifies things a bit, summarizing that the company sells software on a subscription basis, as well as access to a network of information for sales, marketing and recruiting professionals. Admittedly, those who would travel to ZoomIn- fo’s website probably already would have an idea of what they do. But why overcomplicate the ver- biage? It’s as if the idea was to sound impressive by using flowery language, but that tactic fails by the high likelihood many won’t understand what is be- ing communicated. Let’s use Zoom Video Communications as a comparison. The company’s website indicates its technolo- gy “helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done.” “Our easy, reliable cloud platform for video, voice, content sharing and chat runs across mobile devices, desktops, telephones and room systems,” the company’s website reads. Much easier to digest. It’s a battleground to gain customers and market share, so companies should be doing all they can to make sure their marketing is on point. Marketing via websites and social media is typi- cally the first place where many customers interact with a business. Advertisements are frequent, and the nature of the internet means ideas and informa- tion are consumed quickly and often. There’s a lot out there competing for your po- tential customer’s attention. And you only get one first impression. Liam Gray, a content writer for business-to-busi- ness blogging service Blend, has some helpful tips from a September 2020 article titled, “The negative effects of jargon in content marketing.” 1. “Use jargon sparingly.” It’s best only to use it when the concept is simple and it can help establish your business as an authority. 2. “Communicate in the same language as your buyers.” Especially when marketing to social media, simple language is best. 3. “Know your audience.” Complicated wording should only be reserved for your core customers, not potential business. 4. “Prioritize clarity in your content.” It’s vitally important to getting your message across. Companies must leave complicated jargon at the door and communicate better to gain the business of the modern-day customer. It’s as simple as that. Springfield Business Journal Web Editor Geoff Pickle can be reached at gpickle@sbj.net. Send letters and comments to sbj@sbj.net FROM THE WEB Geoff Pickle GUEST COLUMN Roy Blunt Letter to the Editor Blunt must get with the times on fossil fuels [Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the opinion article at left, which was first published on SBJ.net .] Dear editor, Regarding Sen. Roy Blunt’s "opinion" article of Feb. 12, leave it to him to say how important it is to keep burning and using fossil fuels, particularly coal, when the whole world is waking up to the fact that we are heading for a climate crisis and must continue transitioning to clean energy like wind and solar. If not for ourselves and our current generation, surely he would have the vision and wisdom to look 25-50 years ahead and consider the environment our grandkids, etc., will be coping with. Climate change and global warming used to be controversial subjects, but now science, melting ice (raising ocean levels), weather extremes, etc., have proven we must quit burning fossil fuels and gener- ating greenhouse gasses. Again, the whole world is starting to realize and respond to this situation. But not Sen. Blunt. By the way, according to the Yale School of the Environment, Sen. Blunt has received $1.5 million from coal, oil and gas companies. Is it possible this might have influenced his opinion on this subject? —Charlie O’Reilly, of Nixa