25 Feb, 2010
Contractor Portneuf Gets Into WIND
From the Idaho DoC release:
Brett Harris, VP of River’s Edge Energy, Inc. and President of Portneuf
Electric, Inc. traveled to Beijing and Shanghai, China in November of
2009 looking for new partners. He looked “very carefully for the most
modern technology and found vertical units to be the most efficient
because they allowed for twice the generation of power with 50% less
wind --even in as little as 4 mph wind speeds.”
River’s Edge Energy, Inc. has contracted with All Bright International to sell and install wind turbines in all 50 states. They’ve calculated that in 90% of the applications, the payback for the investment is very quick, 2-5 years, with unused power net metered and purchased back by the local utility company.
River’s Edge Energy, Inc. plans to offer a turnkey system in three markets: residential, agriculture and small scale wind farms. They will provide all the necessary resources and information on federal and state tax credits, and access to some of the billions in stimulus funds set aside for the wind industry, net metering, financing resources, and many others to help set up a single small scale wind turbine or multiple turbines.
River’s Edge Energy, Inc. has contracted with All Bright International to sell and install wind turbines in all 50 states. They’ve calculated that in 90% of the applications, the payback for the investment is very quick, 2-5 years, with unused power net metered and purchased back by the local utility company.
River’s Edge Energy, Inc. plans to offer a turnkey system in three markets: residential, agriculture and small scale wind farms. They will provide all the necessary resources and information on federal and state tax credits, and access to some of the billions in stimulus funds set aside for the wind industry, net metering, financing resources, and many others to help set up a single small scale wind turbine or multiple turbines.
25 Feb, 2010
How Big Is Leviton?
Relevant here: Some facts about Leviton --
Revenue: "About $1 billion annually." Note from EleBlog: I'll bet it's a lot more than that!
Employees: 7,300, including 450 on Long Island
Locations: Beyond the HQ (a new, green building the company leases) -- another 20 locations in the U.S., China, Dubai, and India.
25 Feb, 2010
Stimulus $ Unspent (YET)
So let me retype what it said that I noted (bolding was in original):
"Nearly one year following [the stimulus legislation's] passage, the numbers indicate that its impact has yet to be felt. Of the approximately $33 billion in DOE-designated funds focused on energy infrastructure and efficiency measures, Government reports indicate that approximately $23B has been awarded.
"However, according to those same Government reports, just a little over $1.5B has been paid out to recipients."
"However, according to those same Government reports, just a little over $1.5B has been paid out to recipients."
So there's a lot of REAL stimulus yet to be felt in the energy efficiency/infrastructure markets. Wait 'til this year?
25 Feb, 2010
Housing Industry Trends
Industry Trends & Strategies: Something Old, Something New
- Sales agents have to generate their own traffic by going back to the “old ways” of targeting neighborhoods/apartment buildings, putting flyers on cars, donuts to Realtors, etc. Guerilla Marketing is in vogue.
- Social media (e.g. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter) is much more important today than the old methodologies that included radio, print and TV, perhaps accounting for as much as 33% of sales.
- The average new home size has decreased from 2309 in ’07 to 2094 in ’09. On a similar note, Meritage announced smaller, more efficient home designs during the show, joining others like KB, Shea, etc. with similar offerings.
- Meritage’s CEO stated that despite the historic higher value usually placed on new homes vs. existing, he absolutely will only buy a piece of dirt today underwritten against resales.
- For privates, don’t go head to head against the publics’ balance sheet because when they need to drop the price to create velocity, they will, and you’ll get creamed. Go where they’re not.
- This environment is the “New Normal.” Get used to it.
The decrease in house sizes has been widely reported, but still -- that 3rd bullet shows a decline of 217 sq. ft., or better than 9%. That's a significant shrink, doncha think?
25 Feb, 2010
Lighting: New Stuff A-Comin'
"Light Bulb Turns 130 -- and Heads to the Grave"
. . . I re-read it. Here's the last paragraph, which escaped my notice the first 3 times I handled this piece of paper:
There are other novel lights coming too. Luxim makes a light that is
about the size of a Tic Tac but it puts out as much light as a
streetlamp.
Researchers from the University of Illinois, meanwhile, have started a company called Eden Park Illumination that makes a flat, energy-efficient and completely recyclable bulb. You could put it in kitchen counters.
-- some stuff to think about in there!Researchers from the University of Illinois, meanwhile, have started a company called Eden Park Illumination that makes a flat, energy-efficient and completely recyclable bulb. You could put it in kitchen counters.
25 Feb, 2010
New Electrical Age Dawns
TOU = time of use.
See the Parks Associates blog, which includes a link to the GE press release.
25 Feb, 2010
Nikola Tesla
Tesla-boosters note that in Edison's effort to discredit alternating
current a decade later, his staff deliberately electrocuted a murderous
circus elephant and profited from a popular film of the killing. To
sully Tesla's ideas, Edison's men also helped orchestrate the first
execution by electric chair.
No one is going to get on the good side of The EleBlog by doing harm to elephants!
12 Feb, 2010
Green Data Centers
What’s driving the adoption of green data centers is the economic
downturn as data center owners look for ways to cut costs, according to
a new report from Frost & Sullivan.
It is estimated that IT infrastructure contributes about 5 to 10
percent of a company’s total energy, prompting businesses to look for
technologies and solutions that would help significantly reduce the
energy consumption of their IT infrastructure . . .
12 Feb, 2010
Heating 'Degree Day' Defined
12 Feb, 2010
EC Goes Fishing (?)
12 Feb, 2010
Teens & Manufacturing
52% have little or no interest in a manufacturing career
21% are ambivalent
21% are ambivalent
I'm not sure if the glass is half-full or half empty. By my math, that shows 27% gave some kind of Non-Negative answer. Is that spozed to be bad?
12 Feb, 2010
'New Kind' Of Worker Needed
The U.S. manufacturing sector has changed dramatically over the last
decade and that change is not solely related to the competitive
pressures from Asia and elsewhere. There is no such thing as a unified
manufacturing sector as each industrial sector has its own challenges
and opportunities. Even in something as sensitive as imports and
exports there is no unanimity as one sector gains from imports while
another suffers.
AND
The U.S. manufacturing sector produced $1.7 trillion worth of goods in
2008. That is more than the total output of the Russian economy and the
amount of these goods that were exported are more than the total output
of the Indian economy.
AND
There is a serious disconnect between what the modern factory needs and
what is being made available in the workforce and here is the challenge
to the political decision makers. Manufacturing is productive and an
important part of the U.S. economy, but it needs help to advance. The
issue of training and re-training will come to dominate many
discussions in the future, but thus far there has been much more in the
way of good intentions as opposed to action.
09 Feb, 2010
Energy Solutions Blogging, Too
09 Feb, 2010
The EC Biz In So. Africa
"One of the greatest opportunities currently for electrical contractors
to gain new business is to become familiar with the new technologies
that conserve power in both the industrial and domestic sectors . . . "
. . . sound famliar? It's from the director of the Electrical Contractors Association of South Africa (click to see the rest and a pic of the guy).
An interesting piece: "When the recession ends, the electrical contractors industry will still be faced with serious skills shortages." I believe that's going to happen here in the U.S., too.
09 Feb, 2010
Interstate Electrical Services Corp.
Read the profile here (it continues onto a 2nd web page). What's most interest to The EleBlog is the kinds of work the company does. It shows the number of different things that come under the heading these days of "Electrical Contracting" . . . in this case, all under one roof, so to speak:
electrical construction, electrical services
network systems
control systems and
specialty services
network systems
control systems and
specialty services
AND
Clients contract with Interstate for design build, building information modeling (BIM), and pre-construction services, facility maintenance, security card access systems, fire alarms systems testing and installation, 24/7 emergency call service.
AND
The company also installs network systems for LAN/WAN, copper and fiber optic cabling, network services and telephone systems, as well as building and process control systems.
09 Feb, 2010
Terry's Electric
Riding the development boom that followed Walt Disney World's opening in the 1970s, the Quigley family of Kissimmee built Terry's Electric Inc. into one of the state's largest electrical contractors.
Now the family is working its way through the development bust that has left it a muchsmaller operation than it was just a few years ago, though it's still ranked fifth in the state in terms of size, according to Southeast Construction magazine.
The Quigleys had sold the company in 2002 to a Connecticut electric utility that was building a network of contracting and service firms along the East Coast. But as the housing boom turned into a housing bust, the utility refocused, and company founder B. Terence "Terry" Quigley and his wife, Jeanne, reacquired control of their Kissimmee-based operation, which they had continued to manage.
Now the family is working its way through the development bust that has left it a muchsmaller operation than it was just a few years ago, though it's still ranked fifth in the state in terms of size, according to Southeast Construction magazine.
The Quigleys had sold the company in 2002 to a Connecticut electric utility that was building a network of contracting and service firms along the East Coast. But as the housing boom turned into a housing bust, the utility refocused, and company founder B. Terence "Terry" Quigley and his wife, Jeanne, reacquired control of their Kissimmee-based operation, which they had continued to manage.
Find the feature (which is distributed across two web pages) on Terry's Electric (Kissimmee, Fla.) here. Note that the story says the company's revenue is down sharply, and the debt the Quigleys took on to buy the thing back. But it doesn't mention how much debt the company owned when it was purchased in 2002. In my experience, numbers of contractors sold the company AND the debt to the roll-up buyers -- and when they bought the thing back, they didn't take the debt back.
OF COURSE, this might not have been the case with Terry's. The family might not have had any debt when they sold in 2002; or they might have taken the debt back with them when they bought the thing back; or they might have kept the debt all of this time.
(More)
09 Feb, 2010
What's Green + What Ain't
The article quotes the Treehugger blog extensively. You may or might not empathize with the greenies, but I think what follows is not about sustainability, or attacking USGBC, etc. -- it is, instead, simple common sense:
Don't you think that, if we're going to highlight not just certified projects but award winners deemed to be the very best, we should select more of them in high-performing (or, jeez, just better than average) sites?
"Walkability" refers to the idea that if you have to drive everywhere to do whatever (including, even, exercise), your house ain't green.One result is that the added environmental benefit of the residences' laudable green features will be offset by the environmental damage caused by the sites' automobile dependence, poor environment for walking, and relative distance from jobs, shops and services.
Another result is that the public, the building industry, and policy makers will continue to be misled about how best to achieve true environmental performance in our built environment.
09 Feb, 2010
Lineman of the Future - Equipment
Wearable Computer
Helmet-mounted Camera
Wireless data connection
Voice-activated controls
RFID tag reading
Equipment recognition
Personal voltage detector.
Sahl's presentation -- and a video of what he said along with these slides -- can be found here.
07 Feb, 2010
VIDEO: Tesla Coil in Action
07 Feb, 2010
Motors Are Important
It's motors.
This is from the NH ute web site:
Electric motors consume 64 percent of the electricity produced in this country.
Although they are generally efficient, motors are often run at lowered efficiency
because the motor size is not matched to the horsepower requirements of the
task.
Motors frequently drive variable loads such as pumps, hydraulic systems and fans. In these applications, motor efficiency is often poor due to operation at low loads.
The operating cost of a motor over its lifetime is many times its purchase
price. For example, a 100 horsepower AC induction motor costs approximately
$5,000, yet will use as much as $35,000 worth of electricity in a year. Small
improvements in efficiency can therefore generate significant savings in energy
costs.
I'm not saying water isn't important, or that windows now in place do not waste energy (they do). And lighting retrofits are not the low-hanging fruit; as I heard Energy Secretary Chu say in person once (to laughter from his audience) -- this is the fruit that's already fallen from the tree, and is lying on the ground; all you have to do is bend over to pick it up!
But ignoring something that accounts for 64% of the power use is just plain dumb. Especially when . . . well, read the 3rd paragraph quoted above!
(More)
07 Feb, 2010
You Got It BACKWARDS (you fool you)
But, unfortunately for both of us, I can read.
Here's the headline on a short blog he posted: "Florida Rate Hike Denied, or Another Case Of Politics Costing Us Big Time."
Go and read the thing. The "us" he's talking about here is THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. In other words, whatever happens in Florida among the ratepayers, the regulators, and the utilities, they all exist to give "us" work.
I actually think the Florida regulators DID make a mistake. But I also think the what Short wrote is damaging -- to "us" -- in the short run, the long run, and all of the time in between. Thing is, WE exist to serve THEM. They do NOT exist to provide us with revenue.
That's the right thing, the way it is, right? So Shot's got it ass backwards, ain't he?
(More)
07 Feb, 2010
LEDs & Traffic Lights (2)
That was 12/28. Ten days later, LEDs Magazine ran a piece -- in response to the flood of negative stuff, NOT the EleBlog! -- with the headline LED advantages outweigh potential snow hazards in traffic signals.
. . . I've looked at that piece 4 times now. Each time, I say to myself -- "yeah sure, but -- probably not to the driver who is dead."
07 Feb, 2010
Emarketmybiz.com
07 Feb, 2010
BIM For Electrical Construction
You have to download the 44-page PDF of the issue, and look (at the very least) at pages 28-29.
05 Feb, 2010
Chanos On China (Video)
Chanos recently spoke about the China call (found on www.investmentpostcards.com). You can watch -- it's a 57-minute video.
05 Feb, 2010
Bernstein's Angle On Employment
" . . . consideration must be taken that in 2009, we had a zero policy rate [he means zero interest rate set by the Fed], a $2.2 trillion Fed balance sheet, and an epic 10% deficit-to-GDP ratio. You could not have asked for more government stimulus. Yet employment tumbled nearly 5 million in 2009."
05 Feb, 2010
EC Employment, 2009
It was 594,600. That's almost precisely 100,000 below the 694,300 employed in the industry one year earlier (12/08). That's a 14.4% decline.
The preliminary AVERAGE FOR 2009 of production workers in the EC industry was 623,900.
That's down from 720,700 in 2008. The 2009 figure is also the lowest figure in the 200s.
In 2000, the average employed in the EC biz was 758,400. The average for 2001 was 759,400.
Essentially, there were jobs for 134,500 in the EC biz in 2001 that did not exist in 2009.
05 Feb, 2010
Construction Employment
December 2009 was 4,220,000.
January 2009 was 4,639,000.
The declines are just awful, if you look around on the chart. The all-time high (set in Aug. 2006) was 6,236,000. That is to say, in that month, the average employment in the construction industry was 6.2M. Now, it's 3.9M. We're not comparing apples-to-apples, as construction jobs increase in good weather, and shrink in winter.
But what that says is there were 2.3 million people who were gainfully employed in construction in the summer of 2006 who are now either doing something else, counted among the unemployed, retired, dead, or just sitting around not looking for work.
05 Feb, 2010
Unemployment Numbers -- More
NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA
People unemployed for 27+ weeks (that's half a year) -- 6.4 million in January 2010. It was 2.7M one year earlier.
People unemployed for 15+ weeks (that's more than a quarter) -- 8.98M in January 2010. It was 8.5M in December -- and 4.8M one year earlier.
- - - - -
UNEMPLOYMENT RATES
National unemployment rate supposedly improved, from -10.2% at its worst and -10.0% in December to -9.7% in January.
The U-6 "real" unemployment rate (counting "persons marginally attached to the labor force" and those who are working part-time but want full-time work) declined from 17.3% to 16.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis, December to January. It was 14.0% in Jan. 2009.
. . . on a NOT seasonally adjusted basis, the U-6 real reate was 15.4% in 1/09, 17.1% in 12/09, and 18.0% in 1/10.
05 Feb, 2010
National Employment Sitch - Jan.
1. Nonfarm payroll employment fell 20,000 from December.
2. The federal government added 9,000 temporary positions for Census 2010.
3. Fedgov added 24,000 other positions.
4. Temporary help services added 52,000 jobs, making it 247,000 new employed in that category since 9/09 (5 months).
5. Health care employment up 15,000.
6. How about people who actually produce something or help move things produced around?
CONSTRUCTION -- -75,000 jobs in the month (1.9 million jobs lost in construction in the past 26 months).
MANUFACTURING --- +11,000 jobs in the month.
TRANSPORTATION + WAREHOUSING -- a "large job loss among couriers and messengers" (-23,000) led to a total loss in this sector of 19,000. Go figure.
RETAIL TRADE -- added 42,000 in January. I have a hard time figuring from where this came.
- - - - -
To sum this up:
+ 39,000 jobs in people who do nothing contributory (fedgov) or help people who are sick.
- 41,000 jobs in occupations that produce, move, or sell things.
I would call it a blah report.
02 Feb, 2010
Baker Electric + PreFab
The article to which the link above sends you is in one of those on-line-type, page-turner-type magazines. If you've not worked with one of these before, muck around with it a little.
Among other things you'll learn --
"Baker Electric is using BIM on three major projects . . . "
It's involved in LEED
"We can prefabricate literally anything a customer can think of, so we can not only be more competitive, but we can meet the scheduling constraints of many schedules today."
It's involved in LEED
"We can prefabricate literally anything a customer can think of, so we can not only be more competitive, but we can meet the scheduling constraints of many schedules today."
That should be enough right there.
02 Feb, 2010
Construction Updates
How about housing? One look at the thing, and you turn to a pillar of salt.
02 Feb, 2010
Hospital Circuit Breakers
The first paragraph here:
Imagine you are in intensive care in a hospital and your
breathing is being assisted by an electrically operated ventilator that
is quietly humming next to your bed. Suddenly the humming ceases
because the ventilator has stopped working, and you begin struggling
for air.
The ventilator begins again for a few seconds—and then stops completely.
This frightening situation was reality for a number of patients at one hospital. This article describes a hospital power outage and discusses what could have been done to prevent it.
The ventilator begins again for a few seconds—and then stops completely.
This frightening situation was reality for a number of patients at one hospital. This article describes a hospital power outage and discusses what could have been done to prevent it.
. . . which might lead you to ask, WHY THE HECK ARE ALL OF THESE STRANGERS TRYING TO SCARE THE DICKENS OUT OF ME? It is Halloween or something?
02 Feb, 2010
Health Care + Electricity
1. Can computer and non-certified equipment in hospitals kill patients?
2. What is leakage current and how does it directly affect the human body?
3. Why is certain equipment not suitable for medical use?
Not counting the 17 reference, the article is 5,650 words long (I kid you not). And yet: If you go anywhere near healthcare installations, or if you think you might ever be in a hospital, you certainly should read through this.
I am NOT paid by IAEI. To give you a flavor for what you would miss if you do not hit that link above and spend some time with this, here's the amazingly horrible-to-think-about lead on the piece:
- - - - -
You’re on the operating table, the surgery is almost over. The procedure has gone well. The doctors and nurses are walking in liquid on the floor covered with antiseptic, your blood, and other fluids.
As your doctor is making the final repairs, a nurse is at the computer typing in some data; then she turns to assist the doctor, steadying herself with one hand on the computer monitor.
As she touches the doctor, the faulty PC sends its stray current through both of them and directly into your heart. They feel almost nothing, but you are especially vulnerable and in a few seconds, it’s too late, the damage has been done.
02 Feb, 2010
Accounting Matters
Yet this article on the HousingZone.com site -- How to use percentage-of-completion accounting -- is pretty damn important.
02 Feb, 2010
Black & Veatch Boss Talks
B&V is an engineering firm. To my knowledge, it does engineering on all kinds of big projects (in all types of work) -- including electrical.
02 Feb, 2010
What Do Linemen Make?
That's what the Bureau of Labor Statistics says -- here.
Only thing is, I've heard there is a shortage of these people -- and that some of them make MANY times that annual amount. Think about multiplying it by the number 3 (! ! !).
01 Feb, 2010
Final Economic Thought . . .
To avoid a long, drawn-out explanation of my investment philosophy, allow me to know POO-POOH my own view of the Economy. Here are some facts:
1. I have invested in stocks, on and off, since the early 1980s. I have learned one thing: I am NOT a market timer. I will be right, much of the time, on the direction of the market -- but not on when to get in. I will be right, eventually, on the individual companies I choose to BUY (stocks, options, etc.) or SELL (buying put options) . . . but I won't do it at the right time. For example, I was short (via puts) one heck of a lot of the bank stocks . . . in 2006. Too early. I was right . . . but I could have gone bust buying puts on these stocks in 2006! In fact, I lost money on every trade. Had I rolled the positions over for another 6 or 8 quarters (or was smarter about buying LEAP puts) -- I would have made money.
But the fact is: I did not and I did not -- and I did not.
2. The industry that I watch very closely is CONSTRUCTION. As the 5 previous posts tonight on the 2009 health of this industry should have showed you, there is a DEPRESSION in the construction industry right now. It's going to be WORSE in 2010. Many segments of the economy might NOT be worse. Therefore, I am looking -- not by choice, it's what I do for a living! -- at a part of the economy that is particularly sick at this moment. I could be wrong, big-time wrong, thanks to that.
3. The profession which I have chosen, that of a business-to-business journalist, is DYING. Sure, there are a lot of blogs, and lots more words being sent around the world by this wonderful thing called the Internet. But magazines are dying on the vine. I am, by training and instinct, a magazine person. B2B magazines are just flaking away and dying right now -- almost as fast as newspapers.
So maybe I'm wrong about that long-gold, short-S&P 500 trade. I don't think I will turn out to be, in the 3-to-5-year time frame that I chose (2013 to 2015).
But if you think I might be right, the very next thing to do is Factor In #1, #2, and #3 above.
You're welcome!
(More)
01 Feb, 2010
Economy, Gold + the S&P 500
However however (!) -- who really knows? The question to ask is: How could GDP have increased while employment stagnated? And the answer is -- business confidence comes before business hiring. Many business execs are in a wait-and-see mode. How can you blame them?
Over here at the EleBlog, we're watching something else. For the past week or two, the S&P 500 Index and the per-ounce price of Gold have been chasing each other.
Today, the S&P 500 rose 15+ points, to finish at 1,089.
And gold rose about 25 bucks, to $1,105.
The BET here -- which I really wish I could make (but I won't, b/c I cannot afford to lose big!) -- is to short the S&P 500 and go long gold. The idea: Gold will get to $1,500 while the S&P gets to about 800 (or lower) in the next 3 to 5 years.
Does that sound as if I'm skeptical of the recovery, the ability of Ben Bernanke, and the confidence of many business executives? You damn betcha!!!
(More)
01 Feb, 2010
Public Construction, 09
The biggest categories last year:
Educational public construction -- up 0.9%, to $86.29B
Highway and street -- up 3.7%, to $84.65B
If you want to look at it on a % basis, $317.3 is a bit more than 33.3% of 2009's construction volume. That 3.7% year-over-year increase might fool year; the Obama stimulus kept the number elevated (private construction as a whole died by 18.8% in '09). In other words, the stimulus didn't create a big huge GAIN in public construction, but it helped sustain the relatively high level to which it had already arrived.
Here are the public construction numbers for 2002, for the sake of comparison:
Total public = $210.43B, 24.4% of the total '02 construction pie.
Educational -- $57.46B
Highway and street -- $60.5B.
(More)
01 Feb, 2010
Manufacturing Construction UP
2002 = $16.6B (down 16.3% from 2001)
2003 = $14.2B
2004 = $23.5B
2005 = $39.9B
2006 = $34.3B
2007 = $42.2B -- higher in this year than all other nonres categories except Commercial (which is mostly retailbb) and Office.
2008 = $60.8B
2009 = $74.8B -- the only nonres category higher last year was Power, at $77.0B.
QUESTION: Did you know this was happening? Keep in mind the government is counting the easiest stuff to count (new construction) -- not necessarily including rehabs, renovations, modernizations, and certainly NOT maintenance/repair/upgrades.
01 Feb, 2010
Nonresidential, 2009.....
2008's $416.1B was up from 2007's $357.5B
2006 was put at $295.72B
. . . and so on. The 2002 nonres figure was $228.9B.
So while last year did see a decline, it was (really) about the 2nd-best year of the past 7 for nonresidential.
However, all of the forecasts for 2010 saw nonres will be down double digits --11% to 15%.
We shall see!
01 Feb, 2010
Residential 2009.....
2008 was down from 2007, which came in at $492.5B
2007 was down from 2006, which was at $641.33B
2006 was down just a hair from 2005's tota, $642.28B
2004 was actually LOWER than 2005, at $563.38B.
2003 came in at $476.14B.
2002 was $421.52B
. . . and so on. Last year was really the pits for new housing construction, wasn't it?
01 Feb, 2010
Construction 2009 Total (prelim)
For 2009, $939.06 billion
2008 -- orig. reported as $1,078.85B, it's now shown as $1,072.13B.
As you see, the revisions ain't big-time concerns. The numbers below are all the year-later revisions.
2007 -- $1,137.15B
2006 -- $1,192.24B
2005 -- $1,143.66B
2004 -- $1,027.74B
2003 -- $915.74B
2002 -- $860.92B
I went back to 1998, for a story to appear in TED magazine -- and used the Bureau of Labor Statistics online inflation calculator to adjust the numbers. Not only was 2009 the first year since 2003 that the "nominal" (reported) total was under $1T, but it was the slowest year -- adjusted for inflation -- since 1998. I inflation-adjusted the 1998 number to $930B . . . so, essentially, last year was pretty much FLAT with 1998.
It was just about the worst year for construction in 11.
