Green is golden

Every state in this country and every modernized country around the world is looking to be the green leader. It's a race to that line and the first place medal isn't gold, it's green. (Get it?!)

Excerpt:

So, no, these are not the auto factories of tomorrow. Nor do they want to hire the autoworkers of yesterday. The nature of the work in such a rapidly changing field demands continuous learning and adaptation, not repetition.

The alt-energy companies, for now, tend to be smaller-scale entrepreneurial undertakings, looking for the best runways from which to take off. They'll go where they are welcome, financially accommodated and able to leverage what's around them. In Michigan, that would be, in part, the auto industry, which is shifting big-time into higher-mileage and electric-powered vehicles, but also the water supply, the intellectual resources of nearby universities and the manufacturing know-how that's in this state's DNA.

The question is whether all of that will be enough to compete in a world that's rapidly going wild for clean, renewable sources of power.

"Michigan is executing an aggressive strategy to diversify our economy, and that plan is achieving results," said Greg Main, president and chief executive officer of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the state's chief employment recruiter. "Our recent successes in the advanced battery and solar sectors stand to generate thousands of jobs in just the next two years and tens of thousands down the road. While these projects will take time to become fully operational, no state is better positioned to grow and prosper from these new industries than Michigan."

Read the entire article here.