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Wizardkitten posted this on December 7th, 2010.
Tue Dec 07, 2010 at 08:40:57 AM EST
Yeah baby! More details will be announced later today, but the Freep has the story for us now.
In a major boost for Michigan's emerging wind-energy industry, Gov. Jennifer Granholm plans to announce today that the state has attracted its first large wind turbine assembly plant.
Northern Power Systems of Barre, Vt., intends to use a facility in Saginaw to manufacture its next-generation large wind turbines, expected to be the first ones built in the U.S. using 100% American-made parts. Plans call for sourcing as many parts as possible from Michigan companies.
100% American. That's amazing. With former auto parts manufacturers looking to diversify their product lines, a company like this will be just the ticket for them to produce demand for their goods. Northern already has a deal to supply 13 turbines to a wind farm in Escanaba, and they are working on next-generation technology as we speak.
Northern Power said its large turbines use a design and technology that make them more efficient, quieter and less costly to operate than what is on the market today. Each of these turbines can generate 2.2 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 2,200 homes.
Working with Saginaw-based Merrill Technologies Group, Northern Power has already produced three of the turbines, one of which was bought by DTE Energy, according to Andy Levin, acting director of the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth.
During the recession, new wind farms were put on hold as investors had a hard time coming up with the money to move these projects. Now that we are starting to see recovery, chances are it is going to pick up again in a big way. Do we need a federal RPS? Maybe not. States are taking the initiative on their own.
The investment in Michigan comes at a tough time for the U.S. wind-energy industry. In the first nine months of this year, new wind project installations have dropped 72% from last year's record levels because of the economy and other factors.
But in the long run, companies such as [...]
Wizardkitten posted this on December 3rd, 2010.
Fri Dec 03, 2010 at 06:03:51 AM EST
It just wouldn't be the Michigan Legislature if they weren't rushing bills through in the middle of the night so they can take the rest of the week, month, year, whatever, off. Did anyone ever check and make sure that they aren't all vampires? Ahh well, doesn't matter now – it looks like they have wrapped up business, and are busy packing their coffins up to move on to their next place of employment and/or retirement.
MIRS just published at 5 am, and as I type this, Gongwer still isn't up yet. The MSM has a few details on what was or wasn't done while you were sleeping – here are the highlights:
As reported below, Pure Michigan received $10 million from the 21st Century Jobs Fund. This brings funding for the campaign to $15 million for next year – half of what is needed, but at least this gets us a regional winter/spring effort and on the national airwaves for next summer. Good deal.
Also reported below, Mike Bishop and the Senate Republicans killed 10,000 construction jobs and probably created an international incident when they obstructed the DRIC for this session. Special interest money paid to the Republicans to protect Matty Moroun's monopoly on the international crossing screams corruption of the highest order, and let all their records reflect how they denied our state investment and jobs at a time when we needed it most. Governor Granholm summed it up best:
"They are irresponsible, discarding 10,000 jobs for Michigan workers and ignoring the needs of job providers," she said. "It's simply incredible that they turned down a no-risk project."
Actually, if the Michigan Senate had put our state and workers before their own selfish agenda, THAT would have been incredible. As it stands, this was par for the course. Hopes are that the next legislature will have more sense and work fast to get this approved. The Canadians are already building their side of the project, and will turn their attention to lobbying Washington next.
Autism insurance coverage died in [...]
Wizardkitten posted this on December 2nd, 2010. Thu Dec 02, 2010 at 15:21:47 PM EST
… for next year, anyway. As we have pointed out before, Senate Republicans have repeatedly obstructed all attempts to fund the popular tourism campaign over the past few years, insisting it die under the guise of "living within our means" – even though Michigan tourism supports roughly 200,000 jobs and brings in nearly $90 million in tax revenue every year. We don't even need to get into the stupidity of killing a massively popular and award-winning advertising campaign, do we? Imagine Budweiser announcing they were sending the Clydesdales off to the glue factory because they didn't want to pay for the hay anymore. That about sums up the Republican's idiocy on the issue. And everyone knows it.
Anyhoo, fast forward to the budget completed at the end of September, and the Republicans cut funding again, canceling the fall and winter campaign for this year and putting next year's summer campaign in jeopardy, ignoring the howls of the business owners who were counting on the ads to keep the tourists coming. When it was noted in mid-October that we were drawing enough revenue into the treasury to fund the campaign, Bishop said this:
Matt Marsden, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester), said the Senate would not be ready to make any such decisions without more information and probably not until the January Revenue Estimating Conference.
The very next day or so, House Republicans came up with the grand plan of gutting the 21st Century Jobs Fund – a start-up fund for new businesses that actually, you know, create jobs, the fund the Senate Republicans also wanted to slash along with Pure Michigan this year, but that idea didn't seem to go anywhere. Another month goes by, the pressure builds some more as tourism officials and other Republican legislators start to turn up the heat, and we get this:
But Matt Marsden, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester), said the Senate would not act on a permanent funding source for Pure Michigan. He said Governor Jennifer Granholm could use surplus funding to [...]
Wizardkitten posted this on December 1st, 2010. Wed Dec 01, 2010 at 07:49:27 AM EST
Cool time-lapse video of the Volt on the line from start to finish. One thing to notice is the use of robots in assembly – a major factor in the increase of productivity and the decrease in automotive and other manufacturing jobs over the past few decades. While our main focus has been on offshoring, no one mentions how it's the robots who have taken over the place…
ICYMI: Yesterday GM held a Volt recognition ceremony at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, basically a media event to officially launch the car, but also as a pat on the back and a celebration for the workers and officials who made it all happen. At the ceremony, CEO Dan Akerson announced that GM will be adding 1,000 jobs in the next two years, mainly engineers and others who will work in the area of batteries and electric vehicles. Chrysler also jumped in on the game, announcing that they too will be adding 1,000 hi-tech jobs to work on their new lineup – and that they are bringing back the popular Viper.
But the day really belonged to the Volt, and the symbolism it carries. Electric vehicles are the future, whether the nay-sayers want to admit it or not. The Volt is here, all the major auto manufacturers have electric models set for release very soon or at least within the next two years, the infrastructure is falling into place (when Cracker Barrel announces charging stations, can the rest of the world be far behind?) – and the best thing of all – Michigan will be the epicenter for development as this technology continues to move forward.
Today, the state has 17 companies that help make batteries for electric vehicles, projected to create 63,000 Michigan jobs in the next decade, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday at a Volt celebration at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, which builds the car.
More jobs are now on their way to an industry carving a path for a greener auto industry.
On Tuesday, GM and Chrysler announced plans to each hire 1,000 [...]
Wizardkitten posted this on November 30th, 2010. Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 14:26:25 PM EST
This was surprising, considering the time frame. The Michigan unemployment rate hit its peak in December of 2009, and yet at the same time apparently Detroit was starting to experience a return in economic growth as well. Or, at least was doing a lot better than other metropolitan areas across the world. Check these numbers – and then stop and think about how important manufacturing is.
The Detroit metropolitan area was rated seventh among U.S. metro areas in economic growth from 2009 to 2010, according to a new global study by the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Ranked 46th in the world in the study, Detroit was mentioned as a metro area undergoing a recovery based on a rise in U.S. manufacturing.
Detroit ranked 146 out of 150 during the recession and 147th prior to it.
The study was done by Brookings in conjunction with the London School of Economics. It examined the global economy based on the performance of the world's largest metropolitan areas prior to the recession, during the recession and during the current recovery period.
The study reports that overall the US is lagging in growth, especially when compared with China, and that there are only a few metro areas in the US that are starting to see significant recovery – but Detroit is definitely one of them.
Detroit was rated 147 out of 150 during the "pre-recession" period from 1993 to 2007, then rated 146 during the "recession" period from 2007 to 2010.
In the "recovery period" from 2009 to 2010, Detroit was rated 46, and trailed just six other U.S. cities.
The dates of the recovery and recession periods overlap because many areas are still in the midst of the recession while others are emerging, the study reported.
Detroit and 11 other U.S. metro areas were classified as being in a road to full recovery, while only San Antonio, Texas, was rated as having a full recovery. Most cities are either still early in a recovery or still in decline.
Not sure what they qualify as "full recovery", but whatever it is, we [...]
Wizardkitten posted this on October 4th, 2010.
Mon Oct 04, 2010 at 22:46:31 PM EDT
Another day, more promises from Rick Snyder to restore funding to programs that Senate Republicans forced us to cut. Today it was the Pure Michigan campaign; let's use the Gongwer headline to get the full effect:
SNYDER CRITICIZES 'PURE MICHIGAN' CUT
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder said Monday he would prioritize funding for the "Pure Michigan" tourism campaign and make sure it has enough money to last a full fiscal year.
Quick review on what has happened with Pure Michigan in the past year. During the budget bloodbath of '09, funding was cut to $5.4 million for FY 2009-10. That pretty much eliminates the campaign; you can't buy national TV advertising on that little of a budget. In December, House Democrats passed a plan that would have restored funding to the full $30 million. Senate Republicans would not act, and by the end of January, tourism officials and businesses were left pleading with the Legislature to please make a decision on funding, as they needed to get the ad buys in to be on the air by March.
Senate Republicans stalled through February, finally acting in the first week of March to add $9.5 million to the campaign, bringing the total to only half of what we needed. The House Democrats turned around and passed another plan in mid-March for the full funding – and the Senate Republicans, led by Nancy Cassis, shot it down again, leaving us at the $15 million mark for the year. The campaign finally hit the air late, and the decision was made to target only for the summer dollars. Fall and winter would then have to be canceled – and they were.
In May, Senate Republicans slashed funding again back down to $5.4 million for FY 2010-11. There it sat all summer until we got around to passing the budget in the final few days of September. Senate Democrats made an effort to restore at least $10 million to the campaign, and guess what? You got it, once again, Republicans said "No!"
"No one disputes the importance [...]
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