Lessons in luring high-tech business

By Bryan Corliss

Herald Writer

Local economic development officials should learn more about the energy requirements of the high-tech and biotech companies they are trying to recruit, a recent report says.

That’s one of half a dozen recommendations of a task force on energy issues formed by the Snohomish County Economic Development Council. The task force did not recommend any public policy changes, but did suggest a number of projects for the development council to pursue.

The report has been forwarded to the development council board, which has not yet acted on it. The report grew out of last year’s energy crisis, which saw local power rates jump more than 50 percent.

The task force determined that energy prices alone won’t keep a company from coming to Snohomish County, nor will it prompt an existing company to leave.

But “rising energy costs combined with other impacts such as transportation and permitting concerns can send a company looking elsewhere,” the report says. “For small companies in particular, the risk of raising the price of goods or services too high can put them out of business.”

The task force recommends that the development council analyze energy needs in growth industries like technology and biotech.

The study notes that “energy costs represent a substantial portion of the technology’s industry overhead.” During the early 1990s in California’s Silicon Valley, energy costs rose dramatically, prompting an exodus to places like Austin, Texas, where companies could get more reliable service and sometimes lower costs, the report says.

The biotech industry does have some flexibility in its power use, the report says. For companies already here, that fact provided some protection during last year’s electrical rate runups.

In most cases, the report said, biotech companies here use gas-fired boilers and heaters to operate research equipment and heat office space.

The task force also recommended that the development council: