“This standard will spur growth in the clean energy sector,” Obama
\nsaid. “We know how important that is. We know that our dependence on
\nforeign oil endangers our security and our economy. We know that
\nclimate change poses a threat to our way of life. We know that our
\neconomic future depends on our leadership in the industries of the
\nfuture.”<\/p>\n
Response in Michigan<\/strong><\/p>\n Three days later, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was in Ypsilanti, midway between Detroit and Ann Arbor<\/a>, “In a global economy we are fighting for every single job,” said The two ceremonies, occurring 500 miles apart, are the latest public $6 Billion For batteries<\/strong><\/p>\n Since Obama has taken office, Michigan has attracted roughly $6 LG Johnson Controls<\/a> received a $299.2 million federal grant to make nickel-cobalt-metal In all 17 new battery plants are either under construction or Efficiency, emissions rules supported<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s understandable that Granholm and auto industry executives are In Washtenaw County, where Ford’s Rawsonville plant is located, “These have been a really tough eight years for everybody. We’ve all Indeed, at times in her public appearances, Granholm appears almost Big markets For clean vehicles<\/strong><\/p>\n First are the market analyses that consistently predict big domestic and global markets for clean vehicles. In 2009, Deutsche Bank estimated that global sales of electric, hybrid,<\/a> and other alternative fuel and advance technology vehicles stood at 1 DTT Global Manufacturing Industry group estimates that by 2020, Ford alone plans to launch five new all-electric or hybrid The second reason for Granholm’s fervor about clean vehicles is the Following her 2006 re-election on a promise to produce new jobs, the In 2008, candidate Obama campaigned on a message that envisioned a transition to the low-carbon economy that would wake up American industrial innovation, generate jobs<\/a>, make the nation more secure, and A political partnership<\/strong><\/p>\n Their relationship, at least in public, seems genuinely warm. The partnership, in policy terms, has been substantive in ways The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act<\/a> contained over $3 billion for clean vehicle development including $2 The president and his advisors, lastly, are ordering up the Big savings<\/strong><\/p>\n Both are significant. The annual fuel savings, nearly 400 million The new heavy truck rules that Obama ordered last week should also “America has the opportunity to lead the world in the development of He added in his public remarks: “I believe that it’s possible, in That message has reached deep into Michigan’s reviving vehicle During a conference call with reporters on Friday after the White Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n The Climate Post: BP oil spill washes up on Potomac shores<\/a><\/p>\n A chat with energy analyst Trevor Houser about how to assess climate legislation<\/a><\/p>\n Obama preaches green tech gospel to California choir<\/a><\/p>\n
\nto praise executives of the Ford Motor Company. Ford is spending $10
\nmillion to retool one plant in Rawsonville to assemble battery packs
\nfor next generation clean vehicles, and $125 million more in another
\nplant in Sterling Heights to build electric drive transaxles. The $135
\nmillion investment, made possible by $62.7 million in federal clean
\nvehicle grants from Obama’s 2009 stimulus act, will lead to 170 new
\njobs, said Ford, and bring work currently occurring in Mexico and Japan
\nback to the United States.<\/p>\n
\nGov. Granholm. “We are not going to turn our back on the manufacturing
\nsector. We are not just going to be a nation that teaches each other to
\ndance or cuts hair. We are going to rebuild this country by having a
\nstrong manufacturing sector. And it starts right here. “<\/p>\n
\nmanifestations of a little recognized but exceptionally productive
\npolitical partnership between the president and Michigan’s governor
\nthat is reshaping the American vehicle manufacturing sector, and
\nstarting to produce big consequences for energy use, climate action,
\nand job production.<\/p>\n
\nbillion in manufacturing investment focused on building batteries for
\nelectric vehicles. Last August, after the president announced that the
\nEnergy Department was awarding $2.4 billion in grants for battery
\ndevelopment and manufacturing, Vice President Joe Biden personally
\ntravelled to the Detroit region to confirm that more than half, $1.3 billion,
\nwould be spent in Michigan and contribute to developing 19,000 new jobs.<\/p>\n
\nChem, the Korean battery maker, received $151.4 million from the
\nDepartment of Energy for the $303 million battery plant it is building
\nin Holland,<\/a> near the Lake Michigan shoreline. The plant will
\nmanufacture the power packs for the Chevy Volt, the plug-in hybrid that
\nGeneral Motors says it will introduce later this year. The LG Chem
\nplant opens in 2012 and is expected to employ 400 people.<\/p>\n
\nbattery cells and packs, as well as produce battery separators in a
\nplant it also is building in Holland, Michigan in a joint venture with
\nSaft, the French battery maker. The project is expected to employ 550
\npeople by 2014.<\/p>\n
\nnearing groundbreaking in Michigan, according to the Michigan Economic
\nDevelopment Corporation, a state agency. Toda America<\/a>,
\na Japanese manufacturer of battery components, broke ground in Battle
\nCreek in April for a $70 million plant, half of it financed by federal stimulus funds, that will initially employ 60
\npeople. A123 Systems<\/a>,
\nan innovator of battery technology incubated at the Massachusetts
\nInstitute of Technology, is building two plants just outside Detroit.<\/p>\n
\nenthusiastic about the state’s embrace of clean car technology. They
\nalso support, after decades of resistance, the new efficiency and
\nemissions reduction rules. The regulatory standards have the effect of
\nproducing new markets and force vehicle manufacturers to modernize
\ntheir thinking to compete. The convergence of new technology, new
\nregulation, and big federal and state investments has produced several
\nthousand new jobs announced to date. Each is viewed as precious in a
\nstate overwhelmed by the downsizing of the auto industry and a riptide
\nof manufacturing job losses over the last decade.<\/p>\n
\n14,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared since 2001, according to county
\nfigures. The state has lost a total of 800,000 jobs since 2000, half of
\nthem in manufacturing according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
\nMichigan has led the nation since the middle part of the last decade in
\nthe rate of joblessness, which currently measures 14 percent, but also
\nis improving since it’s high of more than 15 percent late last year.<\/p>\n
\ngone through it,” said Granholm on Monday. Then, brightening, she
\nadded, “but today we are sending a message to the world. You can be
\ncompetitive manufacturing in the U.S. and in Michigan.”<\/p>\n
\ngiddy about the germination stages of what could be a new era of
\nvehicle design and production in Michigan.<\/p>\n
\nmillion and could rise to 1.3 million this year, a 30 percent increase.
\nJ.D. Power and Associates recently estimated that sales of
\nhybrid-electric vehicles could reach about 1.3 percent of an estimated
\n67 million light vehicle sales worldwide this year.<\/p>\n
\nelectric vehicles and other “green” cars will represent up to a third
\nof total global sales in developed markets and up to 20 percent in
\nurban areas of emerging markets. “The drive for e-mobility is on the
\nrise and not only affects the automotive industry, but also other
\nrelated industries such as energy and resources,” Martin Hoelz,
\nDeloitte Germany partner and Global Automotive Affinity Group Leader
\nfor DTT Global Manufacturing Industry group, said in a news release.<\/p>\n
\ngasoline-electric vehicles in the U.S. by 2012 and in Europe by 2013.
\nOne is an electric commercial van, the Transit Connect. Two others are
\nplug-in hybid electric sedans.<\/p>\n
\ndaring new clean energy and climate policies that the Obama
\nadministration is steadily delivering to support them. She has
\npersonally played a big role in that delivery system.<\/p>\n
\ntwo-term Democrat seized on clean energy to leverage Michigan’s heavy
\nmanufacturing prowess. Michigan approved a renewable energy standard
\nthat required utilities to generate 10 percent of their power with
\nclean sources by 2015. It established a 21st century jobs
\nfund that provided millions for job growth, a good share focused on
\nattracting clean energy development. And it set aside $1 billion for
\ntax incentives to lure battery makers.<\/p>\n
\nreduce the threat from climate change. He introduced his New Energy For America strategy in August 2008 in East Lansing, Michigan,<\/a> a state that embraced the same ideas and had a governor who could deliver the votes to help send him to Washington.<\/p>\n
\nGranholm is routinely on the White House list of candidates for the
\nSupreme Court. Obama is a regular visitor to Michigan, appearing with
\nGranholm most recently on May 1 to deliver the commencement in front of 90,000 people at the University of Michigan,<\/a> the largest crowd
\nthe president has addressed since the Inauguration.<\/p>\n
\nlittle noted in Washington or the nation. The Obama administration has
\npassed legislation and administrative rules to support the development
\nof a clean vehicle manufacturing sector that Granholm is determined to
\nbase in Michigan.<\/p>\n
\nbillion for battery development, and $1.3 billion for electric and
\nalternative fueled vehicles. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has sent
\nMichigan substantial funds from a $25 billion clean vehicle
\nmanufacturing account approved late in the Bush administration. The
\nObama administration also has supervised the $50 billion investment
\nthat taxpayers made to keep GM and Chrysler in business, making it much
\neasier to direct the companies to pursue new product lines since the
\nU.S. essentially owns both.<\/p>\n
\nadministrative rules to ensure that the next generation of vehicles do
\nmore with less. A year ago, Obama directed Secretary LaHood and
\nAdministrator Jackson to develop rules for improving fuel mileage and
\nreducing greenhouse gas emissions in light cars and trucks beginning
\nwith the 2012 model year. The government issued the rules on April 1
\nand the EPA estimated the new standards would save 1.8 billion barrels
\nof oil from 2012 to 2016, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 900
\nmillion metric tons.<\/p>\n
\nbarrels, represent roughly 7 percent of all the oil used in America in
\n2006, according to the World Bank. The emissions reductions, roughly
\n180 million tons annually, represent over 3 percent of all carbon
\nemissions the U.S. produced in 2006. Last year in Copenhagen and
\nelsewhere, the administration said it wanted to cut greenhouse gas
\nemissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. The clean vehicle rules
\nwill help the U.S. reach that goal.<\/p>\n
\nproduce substantial fuel and emissions savings. Heavy trucks, according
\nto industry analysts, consume more than two million barrels a day, or
\nabout 12 percent of current daily use in the United States, and produce
\na fifth of greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation.<\/p>\n
\na new generation of clean cars and trucks through innovative
\ntechnologies and manufacturing that will spur economic growth and
\ncreate high-quality domestic jobs, enhance our energy security, and
\nimprove our environment,” the president said in a memorandum
\naccompanying the May 21 Rose Garden ceremony.<\/p>\n
\nthe next 20 years, for vehicles to use half the fuel and produce half
\nthe pollution that they do today. But that’s only going to happen if we
\nare willing to do what’s necessary for the sake of our economy, our
\nsecurity, and our environment.”<\/p>\n
\nmanufacturing sector. Lenawee Stamping, a producer of metal stamping
\nand welded fabrications is expanding a plant in Tecumseh to accommodate
\nmore production of GM’s clean electric vehicles and produce almost 140
\njobs. Magna Holdings of America, a designer and manufacturer of
\nautomotive components and systems plans to invest $49.2 million to
\nexpand its operations in four Michigan cities to produce electric car
\nsystems and 500 more jobs, according to the Michigan Economic
\nDevelopment Corporation. Tenneco Automotive, which makes emission and
\nride control products, is spending $15.6 million in Michigan to
\nmanufacture next generation emissions systems that help manufacturers
\ncomply with the new federal rules and generate 185 new jobs.<\/p>\n
\nHouse announcement, Gov. Granholm praised the new standards and said
\nMichigan was starting down the low-carbon path with promising results.
\n“We are particularly pleased that it will be one national standard and
\nnot a patchwork of state by state regulations. That sends the right
\nmarket signals,” Granholm said, adding that her state is on its way to
\nbecoming the “world capital of electric vehicles.”<\/p>\n
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