Update Dec 9 4pm eastern: Bank of America has announced "a limited amount of additional loans" to Republic Windows. -eg

Siun has been reporting on the drama unfolding in the Illinois factory of Republic Windows and Doors, where the company shut down last week and tried to lay off dozens of union workers. That came after the company failed to secure sufficient credit from its banker, Bank of America, to keep operating.

This particular story could be over tomorrow — all it would take is one phone call from a politically savvy BoA executive who understands they’re sitting on a powder keg — and I hope that outcome happens quickly. But that won’t be the end.

We’re likely to see thousands of dramas just like this all over the country, as more and more businesses teeter on the solvency edge and slip over into bankruptcy. In the Republic case, we had a union willing to support the workers in their courageous sit in, and to bargain with the company’s bank. That example is going to be seen, understood and reenacted across the country.

This is becoming a metaphor for the public’s growing anger over Washington’s generous, no-strings Wall Street bailouts while the rest of the economy goes in the tank and a pathetic Congress, held hostage by extortionists, negotiates with the worst President in our lifetimes over whether we’ll keep a domestic auto industry. The fact that BoA was one of the privileged recipients of $25 billion in Treasury’s TARP funds should put yet another spotlight on how little our economy is getting for the $335 billions Treasury handed out to the nation’s largest banks and financial houses.

If the purpose wasn’t to provide needed loans to deserving companies struggling to survive in the middle of a steep recession, what was it for? And if BoA won’t perform that function, why should any of us continue to give BoA our business?

But what about Republic? There are hundreds/thousands of window and door companies, and with the housing industry flat on its back, most of them are really hurting right now. So let me add to why it’s important to keep companies like this going.

President-Elect Obama told us Saturday that he wants a massive economic stimulus for infrastructure investment, with focused investments on retrofitting homes and offices for energy efficiency. One of the most important things you can do for an older home/office is to change out your windows and doors, especially replacing windows with metal frames and poor glazing with frames and glazing that lose less energy.

In general, wood/vinyl frames are far more energy efficient. Metal frames — especially aluminum or steel — used to be quite common, but heat moves very easily through metal frames and also through standard single-pane glazing. You lose lots of energy in your homes and offices right through the window frames and glazing.

In California, we effectively banned these energy sieves for new homes 20 years ago, but there’s still plenty of older stock with metal frames and single panes around. And not all states have decent building codes.

If we want to make our buildings energy efficient, the first thing we have to do is stop the massive leaks. We need new window frames, double (and/or specially coated) glazing, weather stripping and caulking, just for starters. Otherwise, replacing the AC and heating systems with more efficient units, while helpful, doesn’t do the job.

That’s just one tiny example. We need companies like Republic Windows and Doors, and thousands of other companies, because they employ lots of people who make lots of things we need. And we especially need those who build and install the solutions for our energy and global climate change problems.

If we’re going to have an energy/industrial policy, we need to tell our banks that the reason we’re keeping them solvent is because it’s their job to help keep these companies going. If BofA won’t do that, we’ll find other banks that will.