1,800 New Green Jobs Making Electric Car Batteries

Midland, MI - Vice President Joe Biden and Assistant Secretary of State were in Michigan yesterday to mark the start of construction on an ARRA funded manufacturing plant that will build enough advanced batteries to power 60,000 electric-drive cars. The project will use stimulus money to create as many as 1,000 construction jobs, as well as 800 full time jobs once the facility is up and running. That's good news for Michigan, whose economy has been battered by the collapse of the American auto industry in recent years.

Read the full blog post on the White House website

Green jobs a priority in Ohio

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland has announced two new initiatives designed to bolster the Buckeye State’s green economy. Clean energy companies that manufacture components for the wind, solar and biomass industries and provide green jobs training for their employees are now eligible to apply for the state’s new Energizing Careers Program. The $6 million ARRA funded program “will reimburse the cost of training up to $6,000 for full-time employees, with preferential project funding to companies located in the 44 Ohio counties impacted by the restructuring of the auto industry.” More information on the program and how to apply be found on the website of the Governor’s Workforce Policy Advisory Board.

Strickland also just signed into law SB 232, a bill providing for the elimination of “Ohio's tangible personal property tax and real taxes on generation for advanced energy project facilities that begin construction before January 1, 2012, produce energy by 2013 (or 2017 for nuclear, clean coal and cogeneration projects) and create Ohio jobs.”

Click here to read the full press release issued by Governor Stickland's office

Governor Strickland talks about verticle wind turbines during a

Specialty Services, Inc. visit in Oberlin, Friday, May 28.