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Clean energy in the Midwest
Greening the rustbelt
Aug 13th 2009 | TOLEDO, OHIO
From The Economist print edition
In the shadow of the climate bill, the industrial Midwest begins to get ready
Xunlight
XUNLIGHT CORPORATION, a small manufacturer of solar panels, sits on a quiet street in Toledo. It has a
professor as its president, about 100 employees on its payroll—and a lot of bigwig visitors. In October
2008 Sarah Palin, then the Republican vice-presidential candidate, used Xunlight as the setting for a
speech on energy policy. Other guests have included Ohio’s governor, two senators and a
congresswoman. And no wonder: the firm provided evidence to support a seductive hope, that the green
economy can help to revive the suffering rustbelt.
As the battle over a cap-and-trade bill continues in Congress, the industrial Midwest finds itself playing an
awkward role. The climate bill offers two big opportunities, to reduce global warming and boost the green
economy in the process. And nowhere are green jobs more loudly promoted than in the rustbelt. On
August 5th Barack Obama and Joe Biden, his vice-president, travelled to Indiana and Michigan, two ailing
swing states, to announce new grants to develop electric cars. But hopes for those new green jobs are
matched by fears that traditional ones will be lost. With the Senate due to debate a cap-and-trade bill
next month, the rustbelt and its politicians are at the heart of the battle.
The industrial Midwest has long been in need of a renaissance. Its factories have been losing jobs for
decades, since long before the recession hit. Michigan, home to America’s biggest carmakers, had a
15.2% unemployment rate in June, compared with a national average of 9.5%.
Green investment presents new hope. The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the Centre for
American Progress, a think-tank, estimated in June that the federal stimulus package and a climate bill
would spur about $150 billion in spending on clean energy each year for the next decade. That spending,
in turn, would create an estimated 2.5m jobs, from academic researchers to factory workers making wind
turbines. “This is an opportunity for American ingenuity to renew the manufacturing base,” argues Phyllis
Cuttino of the Environment Group at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
There are already signs of activity. The Great Lakes Wind Network, based in Ohio, helps local firms sell
goods to the wind business. Toledo remains one of the best examples of a town moving from the old
economy to a newer one. It has been a hub for the glass manufacturing since the 19th century. Thanks to
innovations in solar technology at the University of Toledo, it is now home to a cluster of firms such as
Xunlight. State grants continue to help the university hatch companies. The Regional Growth Partnership,
a local business group, provides venture capital.
In Michigan despair has bred particularly bold action. In the past five years Jennifer Granholm, the
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