The GOP is holding the federal government hostage. Unless their demands to kill funding for Planned Parenthood and EPA enforcement of clean air standards are met they intend to shut down the federal government. Harry Reid said that the only thing hanging up negotiations is ideology.
Mr. Reid said that Republicans had “drawn a line in the sand” on issues of abortion financing and changes to the Clean Air Act, and that those issues could not be resolved in the hours left before a government shutdown.“The numbers are basically there,” Mr. Reid said on the floor of the Senate, adding that “the only thing holding up an agreement is ideology,” referring to the policy provisions, which he said “have no place on a budget bill.”
Strict enforcement of the clean air act, including court mandated enforcement of standards that limit CO2 pollution, is the stick encouraging industry to develop electric cars and renewable energy. Economic stimulus funds were the carrot that has spurred green job growth across America. Michigan manufacturing, which was left for dead in the Bush years, is resurgent under President Obama's leadership. Tens of thousands of new jobs in wind, solar, advanced battery development, and green technology are coming on line in response to the stimulus and tax credits.
Former Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, whose second term ended in January, said in an interview that Michigan businesses are expected to create more than 150,000 clean energy jobs in the next decade from $14 billion of projects in the pipeline.The jobs will stem from 17 advanced battery companies and nearly 50 solar, wind and biofuels companies that came to Michigan from August 2009 to December 2010, lured by state tax credits and federal stimulus grants, Granholm told SolveClimate News.
From a decade of despair caused by Republican abandonment of American manufacturing and green jobs, Michigan now has the most improved jobs growth in America. Democratic policies of environmental enforcement and green tech development are paying off.
For the first time in a decade, Michigan is projected to gain jobs and break its unprecedented string of rising unemployment, according to April 4 figures from the University of Michigan's economics department.This week, the department updated its earlier projections of 20,000 new positions for 2011. Economists now anticipate Michigan will add 64,600 jobs in 2011 and 61,500 more in 2012. The increase reflects "in part a bounce in manufacturing following the traumatic situation of the recent past," they wrote.
GM battery chief Micky Bly inside the GM Advanced Battery Lab. image source: Edmunds.com