The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Four words — two each from Chris Gregoire and Barack Obama — offer a few drops of moisture for Southwest Washingtonians in the parched landscape that American employment has become.

From the Washington governor, those two words are “geographic areas.” Gregoire has said she will present a job-creation proposal next week, and according to a story in The Olympian newspaper, her plan could include tax incentives for businesses in the hardest-hit areas of the state.

And where might those areas be? Although Gregoire did not provide details to the Olympia newspaper, here’s the key quote upon which we choose to focus: “It’s intended to help the hardest hit, which includes small business, some of our geographic areas that are hardest hit, and to really stimulate opportunities we see out there where we can be much more competitive.” One logical interpretation of “geographic areas” would include Southwest Washington, which has teetered at or near the state’s highest unemployment rates for several months.

This drop-in-the-desert relief is worth filing away in the Hope Cabinet as we await details about Gregoire’s plan.

Last week in a meeting with The Columbian’s editorial board, state Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, also suggested that, although he opposes tax increases, “one solution to the (state) deficit problem could be to find businesses outside our state that do not pay taxes here but compete against businesses here that do pay taxes. That could be one way to help Washington’s businesses, especially small ones.” True, and the logical extension of that argument is that it would bolster job creation.

From the president, the two key words are “renewable power.” On Friday Obama outlined his own federal jobs-creation plan, and he coupled it with “the goal I’ve set of doubling the amount of renewable power we use in the next three years with wind turbines and solar panels built right here in the U.S. of A.” If there are two words in that statement more significant to our community than “renewable power,” they might be “wind turbines.” The Port of Vancouver has become a center for imported turbine components headed to wind farms in eastern parts of Washington and Oregon.

Obama announced $2.3 billion in tax credits to create 17,000 “green” jobs,” and he wants Congress to provide another $5 billion for clean-energy manufacturing. Say what you will about the value or folly of the federal economic stimulus plan, but when it comes to creating cutting-edge jobs, our community should not be finicky. Obama’s plan could affect more than 180 projects in 40-plus states. Simple math — plus Clark County’s increasing role in the emerging wind- and solar-energy industries — justifies another file in the Hope Cabinet.

Make no mistake, though, these words from state and federal leaders for now are only faint flickers at the end of a long, dark and haunting tunnel. The national unemployment rate held steady at 10 percent Friday, but many economists believe it could jump to 11 percent by the summer. That would be the highest rate since World War II. Especially discouraging is the belief among experts that the rate is not higher because many people have stopped looking for work, they’ve given up, or are no longer counted as unemployed.

The president is right. No otherwise positive indicators will define a true economic recovery until progress is seen in putting Americans back to work.

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