Our customers are mainly heavy industry, metals, minerals, food, chemical and carbon black, petroleum and coke producers.

These industries, which are generally international corporations, all will be seriously affected by increased costs with the pending cap-and-trade energy legislation approved by the House and being considered by the Senate.

I have been saying we are in a global economy and these companies have other options they will consider and likely take to reduce manufacturing costs.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal published the following news item regarding one of our customers, Arcelor Mittal:

"Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel producer, is shifting focus from the developed world to lower-cost developing regions, acknowledging that growth prospects are dimmer in North America and Europe.

"Chief Executive Lakshmi Mittal told steel producers at a conference in New York that while the U.S. and European Union will continue to wield considerable influence in pioneering new steelmaking techniques and products, those regions don't promise the same growth as other locales. …

"'Per capita consumption of steel in developing economies remains low, promising a larger upside to investment, especially as infrastructure projects take hold,' he said. 'Their powers of recovery are likely to be faster.'

"'Emerging economies also don't have the same costs as developed nations from regulations on carbon-dioxide emission,' he said.

"Aditya Mittal, Arcelor Mittal's chief financial officer, said, 'Clearly, we have to review some of our investment in the developed world.'"

I don't know anybody in heavy industry and manufacturing that is not making this same assessment. In 2008, the United States produced 23 percent of the world's GDP with 4.58 percent of the world's population.

That's a pretty astounding number that obviously requires technology and energy to achieve.

But going forward, no one is going to invest in the United States until they can figure a return on investment. You can't figure a return on investment until you know the cost basis. With cap-and-trade, health care, card check (union organizing) and future tax increases looming, you cannot determine a cost basis. In any case, a business has to be globally competitive, which is extremely difficult already without these additional costs.

I don't know how anyone could possibly believe the pending legislation isn't going to have a significant detrimental impact on America's heavy industry and all the small- and medium-sized companies that support it.

Our company is already global and, if we have to, we can shift assets and investments to follow our customers.

Our country needs to increase production and exports to maintain and grow our infrastructure, shift our trade balance from negative to positive and generate enough income to pay down our national debt. I don't see how our country is going to do this by increasing business costs, and I really don't know anybody else who does, or who could even offer a reasonable explanation of how it could work.

Eric Bertness is CEO of Phillips Kiln Services Ltd., South Sioux City, which operates internationally. Phillips began operations in 1969 providing maintenance services to operators of industrial rotary kilns, dryers and similar equipment. Phillips offices are in the United States, Canada, England, India and Australia.