Michigan Will Lead the Green Industrial Revolution
The battle against global climate change was kicked into a new gear this month, and Michigan is leading the charge.
That's right: Michigan.
The so-called "rust belt" state that has been putting cars, trucks, and SUV's on the road for over 100 years is putting the pedal to the metal on making the U.S. less reliant on fossil fuels.
As Governor of the state that has been ground zero for the nation's economic crisis, I was proud to stand with leaders of the UAW and ten automakers as President Obama announced a truly historic, aggressive national agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles.
Out with the old gas guzzlers of the past. Out with the old thinking of the past. Out with the old politics of the past. Out with the old rust belt.
May was the first month of the New: new technology, new ideas, and a new era of cooperation that will purposefully drive Michigan and America into the new clean-energy future.
Michigan's Big Three automakers, the UAW, Michigan's world class engineers -- they are working together to reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than ever before in this country's history. It's not Silicon Valley. It's not Route 128. It's Motown that is making a more significant impact on global climate change than any other place in America.
In addition to the new fuel efficiency standards, May was also the month that five innovative new Michigan companies submitted their applications to the Department of Energy to receive federal funding to design and build the advanced batteries that will power the electric vehicle of the future. Their applications are backed by $700 million in state incentives.
In Michigan, we're not only redesigning the current generation of vehicles to be more fuel efficient, but as the world's epicenter for automotive research and design, we're literally redesigning the entire notion of the automobile. The Chevy Volt will be the first ever mass produced car designed around a lithium ion battery pack rather than an internal combustion engine. Ford is preparing for the introduction of a full line of new hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, and just announced their first fully electric vehicle will be made at an efficient Michigan factory. Chrysler is also electrifying its product lines, with announcements to come. The key challenge we need to overcome to make the transition to an electric vehicle fleet is perfecting the battery. To meet that challenge, world class companies like A123 Systems, Johnson-Controls-Saft, KD Advanced Battery Group, LG Chem, and Sakti3 are partnering with Michigan's Big 3 automakers and Michigan's Dow Chemical to put the world's best battery engineers to the work on solutions.
As the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, Michigan was called upon in a time of crisis to transition our auto manufacturing base to tanks and B-1 bombers. Today, Michigan will use our manufacturing know-how and infrastructure to make green energy products -- fuel efficient cars, advanced batteries for electric cars, wind turbines, solar panels, smart grid technology, carbon-fiber materials, energy efficient building materials, and more. We have reinvented ourselves before, and we will do it again. Hard work is in our DNA, and no state is hungrier than Michigan.
Some doubters on this website have advocated "pulling the plug on Detroit." Instead, I invite you to plug in to the power of American ingenuity and American transformation. Plug in the new electric car, made in America, by your neighbors in communities across the country. In Michigan, we're plugging in to a new paradigm. We are reimagining and remaking the American automobile, the American industrial sector, and our nation's energy future. Watch -- Michigan will lead a green industrial revolution. I invite you to watch us, encourage us, and join us.
And the doubters?
I encourage them to just try and keep up.
Follow Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm on Twitter: www.twitter.com/govgranholm
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"As the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, Michigan was called upon in a time of crisis to transition our auto manufacturing base to tanks and B-1 bombers."
I am really surprised no one has mentioned this. But Governor, your history is off.
B-1 bombers were never built for WWII. There were two B-1's: one pre-WWI version that never saw combat, and the other was proposed by Reagan and never went into production. Many B-24's were made in Ypsilanti. But GM is shutting that plant down.
Hate to be nit-picky but if someone with such standing as a State Gov. is going to post propaganda pieces, please have your facts straight.
Can you see Russia from your house, too?
Maybe capacitor research should be thrown in the mix. If u could get one to hold enough charge everything changes. Even with battery capacity going up theyy still take a very long time to charge. A capacitor can be charged in five minutes. Now, if we could get one to hold enough juice.
I don't see why new auto companies other than the big 3 can flourish in any state. Michigan should lead in electric and alternative cars of the future without they same kind of auto industry corporation control and internal design we were glued to.
Word!
It would be great to see this happen. But let's be honest, the bean counters are the ones that destroyed Detroit. They would not allow decent cars to be made so they could have more stock options and better bonueses. The only way you can make Detroit successful again is to limit CEO pay, no bonus when the company does poorly, and get the workers to have ownership in what they do. Leave the suit guys out of engineering and we'll be successful again.
Michigan failed, detroit failed. The worlds best engineers don't want to work out of Detroit anyways. This article is an advertisement for the state. The auto industry and our economy need an overhaul. Time will tell but I'm guessing the Governor is being a bit too cheery on this one. And if GM continues to build in China or overseas why should I not continue to buy Honda which is built here in the states.
"Like a Rock"? Not quite.....
There's an incredible amount of automotive expertise in the Detroit area. New leadership and vision is needed. That's it'S easier said than done is obvious but why not view things in terms of what is possible in the future instead of dwelling on the failures of the past. One more point, the problems of the auto industry are not peculiar to them Detroit and MI. Tell me what the hell we make in this country anymore besides waste disposal dumps for Canadian metropolises? The collapse of entire manufacturing industries in the U.S. is a result of an almost complete absence of national industrial policy over the last fifty years and the takeover of the entire economy by Wall Street financiers and their "instruments" of mass destruction!
"Michigan failed, detroit failed. The worlds best engineers don't want to work out of Detroit anyways. "
That's a really broad assertion. Detroit didn't fail. Detroit was failed. The Big Three got fat and lazy, no doubt about it, but it was management that failed. The folks on the assembly lines didn't fail. The engineering staff didn't fail (yeah, there's some dead wood in there, but by and large, automotive engineers are a creative, inspired bunch).
I don't know about you, but I've worked in Detroit (the suburbs actually), and I still live here. I wouldn't claim that the world's best engineers want to work out of Detroit, but I've worked with plenty of engineers here, and met plenty of machinists, and assembly line workers. They're mostly committed and talented, deeply invested in Michigan, and with the housing market being what it is, they're gonna be around for a while.
Why not use the brain trust we still have before we let what little industrial know-how we have left evaporate?
Here's a little diatribe I wrote if you're interested: http://cyc
We do have a lot of smart engineers, machinists, and assembly line workers here in Detroit (and in shops around the country). It seems criminal to let our manufacturing capacity die on the vine when we need so many new products built if the U.S. hopes to be a going concern in the next century: windmills, geothermal components, photovoltaics, high-efficiency gas turbines, bio gas production components, electricity grid components, light rail, etc.
Buying this stuff offshore is not a good answer. Where are all the touted benefits of the last thirty years of free trade.? We've impoverished our nation, and diminished our middle class by allowing our manufacturing base to wither when we offshored manufacturing in pursuit of short term profits.
So let's build it in the good ol' US of A, please.
my 2 cents: http://cyc
Good luck, Governor.
BTW:
Get your manufacturing community thinking about light and heavy rail--engines, tracks, cars, tracking and switching technology, etc.
I believe we have to import most of those pieces now and, if rail's going to make a comeback, it'd be nice if we had a domestic industry again.
.
Waddya gonna do to prevent the corporations from transferring the manufacturing of the new technology offshore to someplace where they can pay $1 or less an hour once we get the bugs ironed out, guv?
lolllll...
lollllllll
They are not the only ones who can produce cars. The government needs to allow other entrepreneurs in. The monopoly must no longer exist.
http://www
wanna read about how Gov and corporations work in michigan..
A clearly self-serving article replete with conjecture, non-sequiturs, and ignorance. How on Earth does a $10.4 million tax break over 10 years constitute a subsidy of housing for the wealthy executives of Whirlpool? Whirlpool bought Maytag because Maytag was ripe for purchase after quality control problems resulted in a drop in product demand. Perhaps you would rather that LG or Haier bought Maytag and moved all of the jobs overseas. Instead, most of the jobs were spared by the merger, and Maytag products will be built in Michigan. Most people would consider that a good thing.
As noted earlier... Whirlpool has no manufacturing jobs left in Michigan..
I challenge my favorite governor to bring some of those "green jobs" to Detroit. If you (or anyone) can kickstart this city, you will have done the entire country a favor. Because if Detroit (the city) can turn around, any city can turn around.
Somebody is going to take the lead in research, development and clean energy innovation and whoever that is, is going to make money and stimulate growth. I live in Michigan and I'm glad if Michigan is part of that, but I want the rest of the country to be involved too. The whole world is ripe to buy effective, affordable, clean energy. Governor Granholm has been working hard on this for a long time, so kudos to her.
NOW: John Dingle, Rep. from MI needs to back off on messing up the Waxman/Markey clean energy bill. Dingle is demanding that large portions of that money go to subsidize dirty fossil fuels of all things. Waxman had to fight Dingle for head of the committee that oversees this legislation. It's a good thing that Dingle didn't win the Chairmanship of the committee, but he apparently still has too much power if he can force a thing like this. We need to make a lot of noise about this before the House passes this law with this abomination.
Let's try to be logical and rational.
Cheap, plentiful energy is a reuirement for a growing economy.
If you exclude nuclear energy from the "Green Energy" definition, then current renewable energy production in the US makes up a mere 6.8% of total US Energy production. Nuclear is 8.4%, and the remaining 84.8% of current energy production is from fossil fuels. See http://www
The only way to make so-called "Green Energy" competitive in price with existing fossil fuels is to dramitically RAISE the cost of fossil fuels, which the Waxman/Markey bill, or any of the other various proposed Cap and Trade bills will certainly accomplish.
Once that's done, there goes your cheap, plentiful energy, and there goes any hope of a growing economy. Artificially increasing the cost of energy from fossil fuels is sorta like trying to borrow your way out of debt. It doesn't work. The rest of the developing world will not handicap themselves in such a short sighted manner, and our economy will suffer tremendously.
I am all for developing alternative energy, but only in a free market manner, not by artificially raising the cost of existing fossil fuel sources, and certainly not to fight the unproven, doubtful global warming hysteria.
Given the above facts, how does the Guv propose we re-charge these marvelous electric cars Michigan is going to develop at a price we can affortd?
Be careful what you wish for...
Let's try to be logical and rational.
Cheap, plentiful energy is a requirement for a growing economy.
If you exclude nuclear energy from the "Green Energy" definition, then current renewable energy production in the US makes up a mere 6.8% of total US Energy production. Nuclear is 8.4%, and the remaining 84.8% of current energy production is from fossil fuels. See http://www
The only way to make so-called "Green Energy" competitive in price with existing fossil fuels is to dramitically RAISE the cost of fossil fuels, which the Waxman/Markey bill, or any of the other various proposed Cap and Trade bills will certainly accomplish.
Once that's done, there goes your cheap, plentiful energy, and there goes any hope of a growing economy. Artificially increasing the cost of energy from fossil fuels is sorta like trying to borrow your way out of debt. It doesn't work. The rest of the developing world will not handicap themselves in such a short sighted manner, and our economy will suffer tremendously.
I am all for developing alternative energy, but only in a free market manner, not by artificially raising the cost of existing fossil fuel sources, and certainly not to fight the unproven, doubtful global warming hysteria.
Given the above facts, how does the Guv propose we re-charge these marvelous electric cars Michigan is going to develop at a price we can afford?
Be careful what you wish for...
Going forward - Jennifer is great -- and she is entitled to the good press....g
DITTO!
Not so fast Jennifer, it's not a guaranteed thing. Let the market tell us what will happen, not politicians
Sounds like Obama just may not be carrying Michigan next election..
We can only hope.
He will carry the south. This country is no longer tolerant ot ignoramus politicians who do not make sense in debates. Illiteracy is no longer in fashion.
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