Southeast Michigan shouldn't be popping the tops off the champagne bottles just yet. It's quite a ways away from a celebration but it looks like the clean tech/green jobs are starting to come in. Thanks to a few huge investments in the area, it looks as if Michigan is truly becoming the poster child for the green jobs.
Excerpt:
And now it's Wayne County, Michigan's turn for dignitaries on the
podium. I recently wrote a story identifying five cities that will be
green job magnets, and one entry got a lot of attention—Detroit. I
certainly know that Michigan is hurting, and the state has experienced
15.3 percent unemployment—worse than Elkhart. Between 1998 and 2007 the
state lost 3.6 percent of its jobs. But Michigan had also created
22,000 clean-tech jobs in that same period, and started 1,932 clean
businesses. Many more are to come, because Michigan was a primary
recipient when Chu announced that $2.4 billion in funding to 48 companies.
Brownstown, Michigan was doubly blessed, winning not only $249.1
million (split with Romulus) for A123 Systems battery manufacturing,
but also $105.9 million for GM to built battery packs (using LG Chem
cells) for the forthcoming 2011 Chevrolet Volt (which
uses a gas engine to supply electricity to the electric motor that
drives the car). And it was to Brownstown today that a plethora of
state dignitaries (almost all Democrats) trekked to see the unveiling of the very first Volt battery pack. The first finished Volts will start trickling out of Michigan later this year.
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