At Mackinac, automakers and labor unite around greener vehicles. Finally.

Of all the significant regional issues discussed at the annual Mackinac Policy conference last week, perhaps none may prove to be as significant as the Big Three and Big Labor collectively getting behind the need for lower emissions and better fuel economy - yesterday.

Excerpt:

"When I talked about the environment 20 years ago, and frankly even 5 years ago, many people thought I was eccentric at best or perhaps incredibly naïve," [Ford Motor Company executive chairman William Clay] Ford [Jr.] said. "But in the past few years we demonstrated the business case for environmental stewardship."

Thursday’s speeches came several weeks after General Motors’ vice chairman, Robert A. Lutz, a longtime advocate of muscle cars and horsepower, showed his green side during the taping of a National Public Radio program in Ann Arbor, Mich. Mr. Lutz described the Chevrolet Volt, a battery-powered concept car, as being "among the most important vehicles that G.M. has ever developed."

Read the entire article here.