What the Governor’s Talking about
Today
Thursday, August 19,
2010
Governor Announces
$21.3 Million in Federal Funding to Increase College Access
The governor today announced that Michigan will receive
$21.3 million from the U.S. Department of Education to dramatically increase
college participation and completion rates, particularly among low-income and
first-generation students.
Michigan’s
proposal under the federal College Access Challenge Grant Program aims to
increase the proportion of Michigan residents with high-quality degrees
and credentials from 34 percent to 60 percent by 2025.
Here’s the link to the full press release: http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168--242363--,00.html
Key messages:
- An educated
workforce is critical to building a vibrant, diversified economy that will
create jobs for years to come. Today’s announcement will help ensure
that all Michigan residents are able to access
postsecondary education — and succeed.
- The U.S.
Department of Education funds also help further our goal of doubling the
number of college graduates in Michigan.
Governor Celebrates
Launch of American Process Incorporated Clean Energy Project in Alpena
The governor today joined company and local officials in
Alpena to celebrate the launch of American Process Incorporated’s (API)
waste-to-cellulosic ethanol clean energy project, which will create 58 jobs (20
direct) and 80 construction jobs. API is one of Michigan’s bioenergy
Centers of Energy Excellence (COEE).
In November 2008, API, in partnership with San Antonio’s Valero Energy
Corporation, received $4 million from the COEE program to establish a pilot
scale biorefinery at the Decorative Panels International hardwood plant in
Alpena. The biorefinery will convert the process waste effluent from the
plant into cellulosic ethanol, sodium acetate and clean, warm water. The
project has potential to be replicated across the state in other biorefineries,
pulp and paper mills, and food and agricultural processing plants.
Michigan
Technical University will contribute research to
improve fermentation processes and also on the use of sodium acetate for novel
de-icing applications.
The $4 million in COEE funding to API helped secure a
U.S. Department of Energy grant for $17.9 million. API has invested $10
million in the project and estimates that replication across Michigan in existing
industries alone could create annual economic value of $200 million within 10
years.
Key
messages:
- Businesses across
the state are making significant investments that will diversify our economy
and create job opportunities in clean energy sectors like biofuels, solar,
wind and advanced batteries. Projects like this one are helping
Michigan
become the clean energy manufacturing capital of the
world.
- Because of
projects like API’s, Michigan was recently ranked third in the
country by Business Facilities magazine as a leader in clean energy.
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