{"id":19434,"date":"2016-03-09T19:10:22","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T11:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/legislation-aimed-at-boosting-washington-states-space-industry-fizzles-out\/"},"modified":"2016-03-09T19:10:22","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T11:10:22","slug":"legislation-aimed-at-boosting-washington-states-space-industry-fizzles-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/legislation-aimed-at-boosting-washington-states-space-industry-fizzles-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislation aimed at boosting Washington state\u2019s space industry fizzles out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New
Engineers work on a spaceship crew capsule at Blue Origin\u2019s production facility in Kent, Wash. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two measures that would have lent a hand to Washington state\u2019s fledgling space industry have been stalled in committee and aren\u2019t likely to win approval during the state Legislature\u2019s current session, the bills\u2019 sponsor said today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having such a tough time with the budget\u201d that the space-related measures appear likely to go by the wayside this year, even though they\u2019ve enjoyed bipartisan support, said state Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon.<\/p>\n

One of the bills, HB 2434, would have created a space exploration center to boost Washington industry. That bill is stuck in House Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n

Previously<\/strong>: Jeff Bezos lifts veil on Blue Origin rocket factory, shares space vision<\/h4>\n

The other bill, HB 2226, would have let spacecraft manufacturers enjoy tax incentives that are similar to those currently offered to Washington\u2019s airplane manufacturers, as in the Boeing Co. That bill didn\u2019t make it out of the House Finance Committee.<\/p>\n

HB 2226\u2019s fate could have an impact on where Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, decides to locate a future manufacturing facility for its BE-4 rocket engine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say it would be crucial,\u201d Robert Millman, Blue Origin\u2019s general counsel, told reporters on Tuesday at the company\u2019s headquarters in Kent, Wash.<\/p>\n

The BE-4, which is designed to be fueled with liquefied natural gas, is still under development in Kent. Blue Origin says full-scale engine testing is due to begin at the company\u2019s test range in West Texas by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

\"BE-4
Engineers examine the BE-4 rocket engine\u2019s main combustion chamber. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By 2019, the company expects to produce 12 engines a year for United Launch Alliance\u2019s next-generation Vulcan rocket \u2013 and for Blue Origin\u2019s in-house orbital launch vehicle, which will be assembled and launched in Florida.<\/p>\n

If the BE-4 is as successful as Blue Origin hopes, the Kent facility won\u2019t have enough capacity to fill the future demand for the BE-4, company president Rob Meyerson said. Blue Origin would have to decide within a year or two where to build a new engine factory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be conducting a thorough search of a number of states,\u201d Millman said.<\/p>\n

<\/span> You want to go someplace that\u2019s welcoming, that actually wants the company.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bezos told reporters that the biggest factor in the selection process would be the availability of a \u201ctalented workforce,\u201d in categories ranging from engineers to machine operators.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose jobs today are very sophisticated jobs, so that\u2019s part of it,\u201d Bezos said. \u201cAnd then you want to go someplace that\u2019s welcoming, that actually wants the company, so those are probably the two biggest things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millman said proximity to other Blue Origin facilities, such as the company\u2019s headquarters in Kent or its launch complex in Florida, would also be considered.<\/p>\n

State and local officials in Florida gave Blue Origin about $40 million in incentives to establish the $200 million complex near NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center. It\u2019s expected to add about 330 jobs in the region, and help push Blue Origin\u2019s overall employment past the 1,000 mark in the next year.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin executives have not said how many additional jobs an expanded BE-4 engine factory might entail.<\/p>\n

Bezos\u2019 company isn\u2019t the Evergreen State\u2019s only player in the space business: The Washington State Space Coalition lists about 30 ventures with connections to outer space, ranging from Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne to Planetary Resources and Spaceflight.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Jeff Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Morris told GeekWire that the tax incentive bill was expected to have a $1 million impact on state revenue if it was limited to rocket engine production, and an $11 million impact if the incentives were extended to the manufacturers of all components that end up in outer space.<\/p>\n

The problem is that lawmakers have been wrestling over a gap in the 2016 supplemental budget amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. \u201cIt would just be another $11 million they would have to cut,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n

The proposal to create the space exploration center would have cost the state even less: an estimated $250,000 in matching funds annually. But it\u2019s been hard for the state\u2019s space-related businesses to focus attention on the issue. \u201cOne of the challenges is that they don\u2019t have a huge lobbying effort,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n

Morris isn\u2019t giving up hope. If the Legislature is called back into special session, the measures might get a second look, he said. And there\u2019s always next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still working on this,\u201d Morris said. \u201cI\u2019m going to come back and hit this hard next session.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Engineers work on a spaceship crew capsule at Blue Origin\u2019s production facility in Kent, Wash. (Credit: Blue Origin) Two measures that would have lent a hand to Washington state\u2019s fledgling space industry have been stalled in committee and aren\u2019t likely to win approval during the state Legislature\u2019s current session, the bills\u2019 sponsor said today. \u201cWe\u2019re having such a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,291,1046,5574,5575,5576],"class_list":["post-19434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-commercial-space","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-legislature","tag-tax","tag-washington-state-legislature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}