Northwest Missouri contributed to a positive report on clean energy released Wednesday by a national public-policy organization.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, analyzing the nation’s emerging green economy, said that clean-energy jobs grew in Missouri by 5.4 percent between 1998 and 2007, roughly 2.5 percent faster than state job growth overall.

According to the report, Missouri had 1,062 clean-energy businesses in 2007 with 11,714 employees. Venture capital for green-technology projects approached $24.5 million.

“Although Missouri is not commonly considered to be a state with high wind-power potential, advances in wind turbine technology have enabled the state to develop a burgeoning wind industry,” the Pew analysts said in the report.

Wind farms now dot the landscape in Gentry, Atchison and Nodaway counties, with plans in the works for new turbines in Holt County.

Watchdog on contracts

Missourian Claire McCaskill used her growing status as the Senate’s contracting watchdog to grill executives of a security company whose lax management might have endangered personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan.

Ms. McCaskill chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, an ad hoc panel formed in January to investigate waste, fraud and mismanagement by government contractors.

Her target in Wednesday’s hearing on Capitol Hill was ArmorGroup International, a security company that contracted (for $187 million in taxpayer dollars) to guard the embassy in Kabul. Lawsuits subsequently alleged the company overstated its abilities to carry out the contract.

“I am not satisfied with the record of mismanagement that is before us today and the oversight this contract had,” the former Missouri auditor said. “There are lessons to be learned from this embassy contract.”

Animal-health leaders

Senators in Missouri and Kansas want recognition for some eye-popping numbers: 34 percent of the annual $16.8 billion animal health industry resides in an area that runs roughly from Manhattan, Kan., to Columbia, Mo.

Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri introduced a resolution this week that would designate this stretch as the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor. Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback of Kansas and Ms. McCaskill joined as co-sponsors.

“This legislation would recognize the Kansas City and St. Joseph regions’ longtime leadership in animal health,” Mr. Bond said in an interview Wednesday.

The bill specifically mentions St. Joseph. It also says the corridor has more than 120 companies involved in the animal health industry.

A companion piece of legislation in the U.S. House has Reps. Sam Graves of Northwest Missouri and Lynn Jenkins of Northeast Kansas as co-sponsors.

No on nomination

Credit Mr. Brownback for prizing consistency. He voted against Sonia Sotomayor after her nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1998. His comments after meeting with her Wednesday indicate the Kansas senator will vote against her Supreme Court nomination.

The Republican lawmaker said Ms. Sotomayor’s views on judicial activism concerned him.

“Unfortunately, I did not hear anything in our meeting that allayed those concerns,” Mr. Brownback said. “I am afraid Judge Sotomayor wants to be more of a player than an umpire.”

Ken Newton can be reached

at kenn@npgco.com.