From: Whipple, Deb (GOV)
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009
4:25 PM
Subject: What the governor's talking about this week
What the Governor’s Talking about This
Week
Friday, September. 11,
2009
Governor Hails Plans to Transform Former
Wixom Plant into Renewable Energy Park
On Thursday the governor spoke at an event at Ford
Motor Company’s former Wixom Assembly plant where Ford Executive Chairman Bill
Ford Jr. announced plans to sell the facility to two alternative energy
companies, Xtreme Power and Clairvoyant Energy. Xtreme Power manufactures
large-scale battery systems for storing renewable energy while Clairvoyant makes
solar panels and solar power stations. The two companies want to invest
$725 million in the facility to transform it into a renewable energy park.
The project, which still hinges on approval of federal and state incentives,
will provide up to 4,000 jobs on site.
Talking points:
• Michigan is fast becoming a North American
hub for manufacturing renewable energy products.
• Michigan is
attractive to alternative energy companies because of our skilled workforce,
technical know-how and manufacturing capacity.
• Xtreme Power says it
will create 2,500 direct jobs while Clairvoyant projects its employment will
eventually reach 1,100. Additionally, Oerlikon Solar, a Swiss-based
manufacturing partner of Clairvoyant, plans to locate its North American
headquarters at the site and create 300 jobs.
• Xtreme Power and
Clairvoyant plan to begin production in the fall of 2011, and also expect to
attract suppliers and other manufacturers to the site. It’s estimated an
additional 10,000 supplier and indirect jobs will result from the project.
Library, Historical Center Resources to
be Preserved under Governor’s Executive Order
The governor on Wednesday issued Executive Order
2009-43 ensuring that when the Department of History, Arts and Libraries ceases
to exist on October 1, the state’s library and historical collections will be
preserved and maintained for generations to come.
The order gives priority to services that affect
libraries and their patrons throughout the state such as Michigan eLibrary (MeL)
and MelCat, the statewide online catalog and resource sharing system, and the
preservation of important collections maintained by the Library of Michigan
including the Michigan Collection, Rare Books Collection and Genealogy
Collection.
Talking points:
• As we continue to streamline government and
improve efficiency, we want to ensure that we preserve and protect what defines
us as a state.
• We believe our valuable historical documents, archives
and collections need to be protected for future generations.
• The
Michigan Center for Innovation and Reinvention Board, established by Executive
Order 2009-36, is required to consider potential ideas to preserve and maximize
the benefits to the public of the existing Michigan Library and Historical
Center.
Governor to Travel to Japan on
Investment Mission
On Saturday the governor will embark on a 72-hour
mission to Japan to meet with key executives considering locating alternative
energy projects in Michigan, and speak at the 2009 Japan-Midwest U.S.
Association Conference in Tokyo. The association was formed in 1968 to
foster better business relations between 10 Midwestern states and 75 top
Japanese businesses. Approximately 400 people are expected to attend this
year’s conference, including U.S. and Japanese business executives, government
leaders and trade officials.
Talking points:
• The message the governor is taking to Japan
is that Michigan is fast becoming the North American center for the alternative
energy industry, and now is the time to get on board.
• Next year’s
Japan-Midwest U.S. Association Conference will be in Detroit, and the governor
is using this speaking opportunity to personally invite conference attendees to
Detroit and Michigan in 2010.
• This trip to Japan will be the
governor’s ninth overseas investment mission since 2004. Her previous
missions to Austria, Germany, Israel, Japan, Jordan and Sweden resulted in 45
companies announcing more than $955 million in new investment in Michigan and
almost 11,000 jobs created or retained.
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore to be
Featured in U.S. Mint’s New Line of Quarters
The governor announced on Tuesday that Pictured
Rocks National Lakeshore will be featured in the new United States Mint America
the Beautiful Quarters program. Pictured Rocks is on the shore of Lake
Superior in the Upper Peninsula.
Fifty-six quarters will be issued, one for each of
the 50 states plus the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. The
coins’ obverse (heads) side will feature the familiar portrait of George
Washington with the reverse (tails) side featuring a national park, lakeshore or
other national site.
Talking
points:
• Congress made Pictured Rocks the first
officially-designated National Lakeshore in the United States in 1966.
• The choice of Pictured Rocks as the site to be featured on the
Michigan quarter was approved by Secretary of the Treasury Timothy F. Geithner
after consulting with Governor Granholm and Secretary of the Interior Ken
Salazar.
• The quarters will be issued sequentially each year in the
order in which the featured location was established as a national park or
site.
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