ALCOA

Senator Harkin visited Alcoa to tour its facilities and meet with its management team and union leadership. Harkin is a long time supporter of Alcoa's research on the military applications of light weight aluminum. In FY 2004 and 2005, Harkin secured $8.1 million in defense appropriations funding to help Alcoa develop lighter, simpler and more cost-effective aircraft and vehicles.

I was excited to finally get the opportunity to tour the Alcoa plant in Riverdale. Last year, when I saw a 380 Airbus at the Paris Air Show, I was proud to see that the aluminum body and wings were manufactured right here at Alcoa.

In addition to manufacturing aluminum into all sorts of great products - such as sporting equipment, aeronautics, house hold appliances, and automobile hoods - Alcoa is also leading the way in environmental clean-up. Michael Brooks told me that since 1988 Alcoa reduced their emissions by 94 percent and their water use by 97 percent, mostly by recycling water. I was also very happy to hear that all of their diesel vehicles run on 20 percent soy diesel.