Michigan Republicans turn their noses up at everything Gov. Jennifer Granholm does to lure new industries to the state.
But people outside Michigan are taking notice.
Check out the Huffington Post article on the state's growing alternative energy sector.
In a nutshell:
"Manufacturing strongholds hardest hit by job losses years ago began laying the groundwork to land green jobs and may now be poised for the biggest gains, depending on federal economic stimulus funding."
It's the future.
Showing posts with label Alternative Energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alternative Energy. Show all posts
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Rogers Pumps Up False Hopes with Pumping Claims
Rep. Mike Rogers finally showed up in Michigan's 8th Congressional District, only to spread false hope about high gas prices.
The Livingston Press and Argus, in its editions for Tuesday (Sept. 16, 2008), says Rogers told the Brighton Chamber of Commerce:
"If the U.S. could tap into all of its potential oil reserves, Rogers said, the country could by 2015 generate all of its own oil and not buy a barrel from foreign countries."
Except that the U.S. has only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves. And it uses 25 percent of the oil in the market.
Sorry, Mike, but the math doesn't work on that.
The solution is not to get off foreign oil, but to begin moving away from oil entirely.
The Livingston Press and Argus, in its editions for Tuesday (Sept. 16, 2008), says Rogers told the Brighton Chamber of Commerce:
"If the U.S. could tap into all of its potential oil reserves, Rogers said, the country could by 2015 generate all of its own oil and not buy a barrel from foreign countries."
Except that the U.S. has only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves. And it uses 25 percent of the oil in the market.
Sorry, Mike, but the math doesn't work on that.
The solution is not to get off foreign oil, but to begin moving away from oil entirely.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Don't be Dumb, Baby, Dumb, About Drill, Baby, Drill
For all the havoc that $4-plus gasoline has wreaked on Michigan's economy, one would think that a sustained analysis of the energy policies of Sen. Barack Obama and John McCain would have been part of the campaign coverage of our major media.
But with the state of journalism today, that would be like wishing pigs could fly.
The New York Times has come to the rescue with an outstanding analysis of why McCain's drill-drill=drill policy is a dead-end. Tom Friedman's column, titled "Making America Stupid," sums it up excellently.
Here are a few key grafs:
"Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of 'drill, baby, drill!'
"I’ll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall — 'Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!' — because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it.
"Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. 'Typewriters, baby, typewriters.'"
Exactly.
The Detroit Free Press, in its edition for Sunday (Sept. 14, 2008), offered a useful, if much less eloquent, analysis of Obama and McCain's energy policies, at least as they pertain to the auto industry.
What is striking is how specific Obama's plans are compared to the other guy's.
Beyond a piddling $300 million prize for a battery and a "clean car challenge," McCain says he will "promote" alternative fuels and encourage a faster switch to flex-fuel vehicles.
Obama laid out his energy plan in a speech in Lansing last month, in which he called for spending $15 billion a year for the next 10 years to eliminate the need for oil from the Middle East and Venezuela.
The Free Press summarized the rest of Obama's plans thusly:
"Increase CAFE standards 4% per year while providing $4billion for domestic automakers to retool their manufacturing facilities in America to produce these vehicles.
"Get a million plug-in hybrid cars, built in America, on the road by 2015.
"Create a new $7,000 tax credit for purchasing advanced vehicles.
"Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to reduce the carbon in fuels 10% by 2020.
"Require 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels to be phased into the fuel supply by 2030."
It's pretty clear which energy policy would be better for Michigan workers and families.
But with the state of journalism today, that would be like wishing pigs could fly.
The New York Times has come to the rescue with an outstanding analysis of why McCain's drill-drill=drill policy is a dead-end. Tom Friedman's column, titled "Making America Stupid," sums it up excellently.
Here are a few key grafs:
"Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of 'drill, baby, drill!'
"I’ll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall — 'Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!' — because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it.
"Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. 'Typewriters, baby, typewriters.'"
Exactly.
The Detroit Free Press, in its edition for Sunday (Sept. 14, 2008), offered a useful, if much less eloquent, analysis of Obama and McCain's energy policies, at least as they pertain to the auto industry.
What is striking is how specific Obama's plans are compared to the other guy's.
Beyond a piddling $300 million prize for a battery and a "clean car challenge," McCain says he will "promote" alternative fuels and encourage a faster switch to flex-fuel vehicles.
Obama laid out his energy plan in a speech in Lansing last month, in which he called for spending $15 billion a year for the next 10 years to eliminate the need for oil from the Middle East and Venezuela.
The Free Press summarized the rest of Obama's plans thusly:
"Increase CAFE standards 4% per year while providing $4billion for domestic automakers to retool their manufacturing facilities in America to produce these vehicles.
"Get a million plug-in hybrid cars, built in America, on the road by 2015.
"Create a new $7,000 tax credit for purchasing advanced vehicles.
"Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to reduce the carbon in fuels 10% by 2020.
"Require 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels to be phased into the fuel supply by 2030."
It's pretty clear which energy policy would be better for Michigan workers and families.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Granholm Starred on Stage Last Night
Obviously, Sen. Hillary Clinton gave a terrific speech last night (Tuesday, August 26, 2008). She overshadowed everyone who came before her last night because of her passion and eloquence in support of Sen. Barack Obama.
But if you caught Michigan Gov. Jennifer Grandholm's turn on the stage, you had to be impressed, too.
Granholm conducted a mini-town hall on the issue of alternative energy. She exuded energy, personality, and expertise on the subject as she maneuvered between the video-recorded or e-mailed questions on the subject and the panel of experts assembled to address them. Compared to all the other governors and elected officials who spoke last night, Granholm seemed much more at ease and prepared, and able to communicate without being tied to a tele-prompter.
Obviously, alternative energy is an important issue to Granholm, who is trying to get the Republicans in the Michigan Senate to move on the issue.
But they would prefer to keep enriching Big Oil, borrowing money from China to buy oil from Saudi Arabia, as more than one speaker said last night.
But if you caught Michigan Gov. Jennifer Grandholm's turn on the stage, you had to be impressed, too.
Granholm conducted a mini-town hall on the issue of alternative energy. She exuded energy, personality, and expertise on the subject as she maneuvered between the video-recorded or e-mailed questions on the subject and the panel of experts assembled to address them. Compared to all the other governors and elected officials who spoke last night, Granholm seemed much more at ease and prepared, and able to communicate without being tied to a tele-prompter.
Obviously, alternative energy is an important issue to Granholm, who is trying to get the Republicans in the Michigan Senate to move on the issue.
But they would prefer to keep enriching Big Oil, borrowing money from China to buy oil from Saudi Arabia, as more than one speaker said last night.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Imagine an America That Doesn't Need Foreign Oil -- Obama Tells Lansing It Can Happen
Can you imagine a world in which the United States needs no foreign oil -- no oil from Middle East dictators, not even any oil from Hugo Chavez's Venezuela?
How different could our foreign policy be? How many troops would we need to protect us against terrorism if we did not feel the need to meddle in Middle Eastern politics?
Those were some of the possibilities that Barack Obama opened up for some 1,700 people who were lucky enough to get tickets to see him at the Lansing Center on Monday (August 4, 2008).
"We must end the Age of Oil in our time," Obama said, as he delivered a message that was tailor-made for job-hungry Michigan and for our auto industry -- a plan to spend $15 billion a year for the next 10 years to wean Americans completely away from foreign oil and create 5 million jobs based on alternative energies. And, he said, he wanted to see 1 million plug-in, fuel-efficient cars built in the U.S. Michigan's history of technological innovation would allow many of those jobs to be created right here, he said.
Obama acknowledged that the switch to alternative fuels will be expensive and difficult, but no more so than answering John Kennedy's call to put an American on the moon or Franklin Roosevelt's call to ramp up industrial production at the start of World War II. He said he knew the nation could do it because "we are Americans. We always do the improbable," he said.
Obama delivered his message in front of at least one Big 3 executive -- Bill Ford -- who undoubtedly appreciated Obama's promise for financial support for helping Michigan automakers retool to turn out cars that will run on alternative fuels.
In response to recent $4 a gallon gasoline, Obama laid out both a short-term and a long-term plan.
In the short run, Obama called for:
--$1,000 energy rebates to ease the pain of high fuel costs.
--A windfall profits tax on excessive oil profits.
--Selling some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down prices.
--Allowing a limited amount of additional oil exploration, including possibly off-shore, if that is necessary to obtain support for alternative fuel measures.
Recently, a bipartisan coalition of members of Congress released an energy plan that includes alternative fuel measures, along with some off-shore drilling. Obama said the measure is not perfect, but he said the nation cannot wait for perfection.
He also chided John McCain for his whole-hearted support for off-shore drilling, which was quickly followed by more than $1 million in contributions to his campaign by oil and natural gas executives, noting that oil companies have oil leases on 68 million acres of American land that they never have used and that off-shore drilling will not provide any relief for seven years. "If they don't use it, they should lose it," he said.
But Obama said he did agree with McCain's recent statement that our nation's dependence on foreign oil has been growing for 30 years. And, Obama noted, McCain has been in Washington for 26 of those years.
Obama also agreed with Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens, who said recently, "This is one emergency we cannot drill our way out of."
In addition to the short-term plan, Obama called for long-term measures, including:
--Increasing mileage standards by 4 percent a year.
--Extending the $7,000 tax redits for buying alternative fuel vehicles.
--$4 billion in loans and credits to automakers so they can retool their plants to build plug-in hybrids. "Automakers are not going to have to beg and plead to get the attention of the White House because they are going to have a partner in the White House," Obama promised.
--Requiring that 10 percent of American energy come from reneweable sources within four years.
--Extending production tax credits for five years for wind powre and solar power.
--Tax incentives and government contracts to encourage the next generation of biofuels.
--Safer ways to use nuclear power, including finding a solution to storage of nuclear waste.
--Modernizing the nation's utility grid.
--Reducing electrical usage by 15 percent by the end of the next dcade, including making new buildings 50 percent more efficient and basing utility profits on conservation not energy usage.
Overall, this was a different Obama speech from the ones seen on television during the primary. This was not about soaring rhetoric or hope or America's promise. It was a nuts-and-bolts policy speech, filled with plenty of specifics for all those cynics who claim Obama is short on substance. There was plenty of substance -- the kind that allows people to dare to hope.
How different could our foreign policy be? How many troops would we need to protect us against terrorism if we did not feel the need to meddle in Middle Eastern politics?
Those were some of the possibilities that Barack Obama opened up for some 1,700 people who were lucky enough to get tickets to see him at the Lansing Center on Monday (August 4, 2008).
"We must end the Age of Oil in our time," Obama said, as he delivered a message that was tailor-made for job-hungry Michigan and for our auto industry -- a plan to spend $15 billion a year for the next 10 years to wean Americans completely away from foreign oil and create 5 million jobs based on alternative energies. And, he said, he wanted to see 1 million plug-in, fuel-efficient cars built in the U.S. Michigan's history of technological innovation would allow many of those jobs to be created right here, he said.
Obama acknowledged that the switch to alternative fuels will be expensive and difficult, but no more so than answering John Kennedy's call to put an American on the moon or Franklin Roosevelt's call to ramp up industrial production at the start of World War II. He said he knew the nation could do it because "we are Americans. We always do the improbable," he said.
Obama delivered his message in front of at least one Big 3 executive -- Bill Ford -- who undoubtedly appreciated Obama's promise for financial support for helping Michigan automakers retool to turn out cars that will run on alternative fuels.
In response to recent $4 a gallon gasoline, Obama laid out both a short-term and a long-term plan.
In the short run, Obama called for:
--$1,000 energy rebates to ease the pain of high fuel costs.
--A windfall profits tax on excessive oil profits.
--Selling some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down prices.
--Allowing a limited amount of additional oil exploration, including possibly off-shore, if that is necessary to obtain support for alternative fuel measures.
Recently, a bipartisan coalition of members of Congress released an energy plan that includes alternative fuel measures, along with some off-shore drilling. Obama said the measure is not perfect, but he said the nation cannot wait for perfection.
He also chided John McCain for his whole-hearted support for off-shore drilling, which was quickly followed by more than $1 million in contributions to his campaign by oil and natural gas executives, noting that oil companies have oil leases on 68 million acres of American land that they never have used and that off-shore drilling will not provide any relief for seven years. "If they don't use it, they should lose it," he said.
But Obama said he did agree with McCain's recent statement that our nation's dependence on foreign oil has been growing for 30 years. And, Obama noted, McCain has been in Washington for 26 of those years.
Obama also agreed with Texas oil man T. Boone Pickens, who said recently, "This is one emergency we cannot drill our way out of."
In addition to the short-term plan, Obama called for long-term measures, including:
--Increasing mileage standards by 4 percent a year.
--Extending the $7,000 tax redits for buying alternative fuel vehicles.
--$4 billion in loans and credits to automakers so they can retool their plants to build plug-in hybrids. "Automakers are not going to have to beg and plead to get the attention of the White House because they are going to have a partner in the White House," Obama promised.
--Requiring that 10 percent of American energy come from reneweable sources within four years.
--Extending production tax credits for five years for wind powre and solar power.
--Tax incentives and government contracts to encourage the next generation of biofuels.
--Safer ways to use nuclear power, including finding a solution to storage of nuclear waste.
--Modernizing the nation's utility grid.
--Reducing electrical usage by 15 percent by the end of the next dcade, including making new buildings 50 percent more efficient and basing utility profits on conservation not energy usage.
Overall, this was a different Obama speech from the ones seen on television during the primary. This was not about soaring rhetoric or hope or America's promise. It was a nuts-and-bolts policy speech, filled with plenty of specifics for all those cynics who claim Obama is short on substance. There was plenty of substance -- the kind that allows people to dare to hope.
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