Detroit becoming poster child for green jobs

When Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $2.4 billion in advanced battery and electric drive grants back in August, he chose to speak from Elkhart, Indiana. The "RV Capital of the World" had been hard-hit, just like Detroit, by the recession. People weren't buying RVs, and they weren’t buying SUVs, either. Unemployment went to more than 18 percent in Elkhart County, at the same time it was over 15 percent in Michigan.

President Obama obviously sees Elkhart as some kind of recessionary poster child, because he’s been there four times recently. But things are looking up slightly in Elkhart, where unemployment has declined to 14.5 percent and the Norwegian battery carmaker Think has just announced it will be producing its City car there. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, a Republican, shared a podium with Richard Canny, the Australian-born CEO of Think.

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.

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