Posts by Howard Lovy

You know all those “green jobs” that are supposed to come to Michigan? Any day now? Well, they’re coming, according to state officials. Really, they are. But, they say, there’s a kind of “chicken and egg” problem going on. The few companies that are creating these green jobs say there are not enough workers around here trained in how to run these new, green industries.

Michigan’s optimistic governor should be aware that the state is not only competing with Asia in building a lithium-ion battery infrastructure, but with neighboring states with ambitions just as sweeping. There is, however, one important difference: Michigan, as far as it has fallen from grace as the center of automotive manufacturing, still has further to fall if it is not careful.

It’s much easier to talk about this kind of green at this year’s show than the other kind of green

They will if Congress — and Detroit’s critics — come to understand that the auto industry is infrastructure.

Here’s Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s EcoXperience track in the basement of COBO Hall. (Click to expand the thumbnail picture.)
My initial impression? It smells like rotting vegetation down there. In the picture, though, you can see one of the cool little Jetsons’ cars in the background.

NBC weatherman Al Roker takes a “test drive” of a Ford Shelby Mustang at the Detroit Auto Show. That’s the story. There’s really nothing else that needs to be said here.
(Click thumbnail to expand photo.)

Back when I was a copy editor for The Detroit News a decade ago, our ultraconservative editorial page would go on red-faced tirades against then-Vice President Al Gore for his prediction of the end of the internal combustion engine. Today, The Detroit News is on its way out and, well, so is the internal combustion [...]

When General Motors unveiled its electric hybrid Chevy Volt an economic epoch ago — at the 2007 North American International Auto Show, what it gave us (PDF 219k) seemed almost too good to be true. GM appeared to “get it” when it came to the new environmental consciousness sweeping popular culture. For the first time, [...]