Granholm vision fades

Posted by hpayne on August 16, 2011

Anyone checked Governor Granholm’s official capitol portrait hailing her as Michigan’s New Green Economy pioneer lately? Its colors are fading fast.

Evergreen Solar – a company that Granholm and her Washington twin, President Obama, touted as “leading the green industrial revolution” – went bankrupt this week, flushing its taxpayer-subsidized Midland, Michigan manufacturing facility down the drain.

Evergreen was one of a gaggle of corporate cronies that Granholm had showered with hundreds of millions in state tax breaks during her term, including $60 million for Dow’s solar business, a company that has since rewarded her with a seat on the board.

Evergreen follows another Granholm prodigy, Energy Conversion Devices (ECD), into the emergency ward. ECD laid off 115 workers in Michigan last May. Both companies are hugely dependent on government subsidies and have struggled as subsidies have dried up or other countries offered even more tax candy.

ECD laid off its Michigan employees “as it restructures amid cutbacks in government incentives overseas” reported The Detroit News in May. That is, artificially-created solar markets in France and Italy have seen severe subsidy cutbacks as the continents’ fiscal crisis deepens and voters rebel against the abuse of their tax dollars – an abuse that Granholm had cheered as Michigan’s unsustainable business model.

Like Michigan’s ailing film industry – Big Hollywood was another “winner” of Granholmnomics – the ex-governor’s “Green Belt” dream was built on sand. And it is sinking just months after she left office as Michigan tightens its budget belt after her spending orgy.

Even the governor’s most prized “investments” – hundreds of millions more in state and federal grants to build batteries for Granholm’s “vehicles of the future” – also appear in jeopardy as the hybrid market has stalled at 2 percent of market sales despite a 600 percent increase in hybrid model offerings in the last six years.

“We know this is not the full answer,” Granholm said after putting $6 million in taxpayer bucks into solar ECD. “But the ending of this story is a great story.”

Look again, governor. Your portrait is peeling.

Comments are closed.