SAE 2009: Govs. Granholm and Schwarzenegger talk green mobility
Click above to read more about the Governors' opening talk at SAE 2009
The 2009 SAE World Congress kicked off this morning with a free-form, Michigan-first presentation by Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and then an interview-style talk by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who arrived over an hour late. Still, Arnold managed to work in some famous lines by first claiming that the car industry is currently saying, "I'll be back" (cue the crowd's knowing laugh) then segueing into a short list of classic one-liners. This seemed to get everyone back on his side.
Most of the presentation was fairly serious, though, with Governor Schwarzenegger saying it is "embarrassing" that the U.S. only generates 2.8 percent of its energy from renewables. On the California waiver issue, Schwarzenegger said that the entire country should have the same regulations (something that CARB's Mary Nichols has also hinted at). He said he believes very strongly that there should be one fuel standard, and California only took the lead because Washington was not stepping up to the plate. Detroit has been slow in advancing alternative power vehicles, he said, but the blame needs to be shared by both the auto industry here and the lack of leadership in Washington. "We cannot make policy based on the oil price," he said.
You can listen to both talks and read much more after the jump.
Someone asked about whether the government should step in and help people get rid of their large vehicles (and you can guess which one came up, right?) and move towards smaller vehicles. Gov. Schwarzenegger said that, "There is nothing wrong with the HUMMER. The HUMMER is a great vehicle." A vehicle's size doesn't matter, he said, what matters are the emissions, the technology. Working with the automakers, Schwarzenegger has put hydrogen fuel cells and biodiesel powertrains into his HUMMERs. This hints at the potential of what could be coming down the line, he said. If Detroit partners with California, there is a ton of potential to advance clean technologies. "There is no reason to deal with the same technology that we've been dealing with for the last 100 years," he said.
"We in California have started building the Hydrogen Highway," he said, adding that partnering with the oil companies is important to getting the HH off the ground. EV charging stations (and battery swap stations) are also important. Like Granholm, Schwarzenegger said that he didn't want to pick a winner for green car technologies.
He said that the automaker strategy of making small fleets of 200 or 500 advanced technology vehicles available is the right way to introduce the different powertrain types to consumers. Getting them in the hands of early adopters and celebrities is a good way to help the market sort out which way to go.
Schwarzenegger said he was willing to do commercials – for free – to promote Michigan cars around. If there's a better way to leave the stage in the Motor City, I have yet to see it.
Granholm talked for about 35 minutes about the new Michigan-based battery plants that were recently announced, the bailout, the Presidential auto task force and more. While she certainly knew her stuff and gladly answered questions from the audience, I couldn't shake the feeling that she was seriously stalling for time since Arnold was running quite late. On the topic of plug-in vehicles, Granholm said that we need to think about how the electricity is generated, and the ability to generate renewable energy will require help from the federal government. The feds can also help on the health care legacy cost issue. Shared health care costs – between companies and the government – is a key component to leveling the playing field for domestic automakers, she said.
With all of the government influence on the auto industry right now, someone asked if Obama was playing too hard a hand right now. Granholm answered that Obama is practicing "tough love" with the auto industry. There is going to be a "very, very, very, very big push" towards energy independence and the auto industry needs to play a big role in getting us there. If it all works, she said, Michigan can be the poster child that shows others how to go from rust to green.
Listen to Gov. Granholm (33 min):
Listen to Gov. Schwarzenegger (30 min):
(Sorry for the cell phone interference. It's impossible to avoid in a tech-heavy environment like the SAE conference).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BoxerFanatic 1:30PM (4/20/2009)
Yeah, because, when I think about how to get where I need and want to go, I think of politicians knowing how to do that best.
This is out of control.
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poop 1:37PM (4/20/2009)
yet he drives a gas guzzling challenger.........which I plan on getting soon lol...
PJ 3:34PM (4/20/2009)
*Not* talking about salient issues doesn't exactly endear elected officials to their constituents. We pay politicians to be windbags--and people too often mistake empty talk sessions like this for increasing gov't control (when they ought to be reading the bills being written into law).
BoxerFanatic 5:16PM (4/20/2009)
@PJ....
Sure... CARB, and all sorts of other regulations haven't established any sort of track record of over-regulation, as it is.
Name one bill for me that DOESN'T increase government control.
If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, 99 times out of 100, it will swim like a duck, too, because it IS a duck.
Government extorts control, at the cost of the people it is controlling. That is what power hungry government does.
I just want to be able to buy a good car, that I want, that I can both enjoy, and rely upon to get me where I need to go. My ability to pay for that, and which product I choose to by generates my little fraction of aggregate demand. That aggregate demand imparts market forces on businesses, and they operate in the market as well. It is an imperfect system, but far better than any other economic system devised by humans.
I do not want the government meddling in my choices, or my options for that, and They don't get to tell me that I have to be in some nebulous way "green" because they say so. That is tyranny, and it only leads to MORE tyranny.
I chose to see or not see Schwarzenegger movies, he doesn't tell me which ones I have to see, and then make me pay for them, and the same goes for every other aspect of the market, as well.
BoxerFanatic 5:22PM (4/20/2009)
One more thing...
We had better be paying politicians to be responsible legislators and executives, and work for the people they serve.
They have been wind-bags with agendas for far too long, and their talk DOES become law often enough to cause problems, and then it is all the harder to rescind.
If you expect government to be disassociated wind-bags, then you expect far too little, and of course the government doesn't feel accountable to that, and unaccountable government is capable of doing all sorts of nefarious things in the name of all sorts of seemingly good causes. The road to HELL is paved with good intentions. The key is to turn around and go the other direction on that road.
Sea Urchin 1:38PM (4/20/2009)
Granholms answer to auto industry slowdown is promoting green tech and movies, just because auto industry is "dirty" that does not mean that the state should jump into a clean tech. Clean tech can not and will not create jobs in Michigan simply because at this point and time California and Massachusetts and New Jersey have the right mix of education, tax policies and other benefits. Plus California has the weather and has a weak electrical grit, so they NEED to generate electricity locally.
Michigan wants to be a leader in green tech, in terms of batteries and such, but Japan and Korea have been pushing that research for decades now so Michigan simply can not catch them, plus Massachusetts with MIT and other schools is in the same field, so for Michigan it is a losing game. Michigan is way too late, they needed to subsidies battery research at universities, but they chose not to, NOW its too late.
What Michigan needs to do is
#1 Stop looking for a new industry that will save them
#2 Improve education in High schools and Colleges, make both more challenging.
#3 Keep taxes, spending low and stop playing footsie with unions
#4 Let markets work, if free forces chose Michigan to be an Accounting capital or Corn capital or what have you, market must determine it, not Granholm.
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jpm100 2:09PM (4/20/2009)
"#2 Improve education in High schools and Colleges, make both more challenging."
South East Michigan is one of the highest concentration of college and post graduate educated workforces in the country. You need to go to a Silicon Valley or Palo Alto which are relatively pure research communities to have a higher concentration.
Whatever, go back to your meme.
Sea Urchin 2:30PM (4/20/2009)
JPM, that maybe, but come on Detroit is a huge City and the stories i read about their ediucation system are scary.
Len_A 2:38PM (4/20/2009)
Detroit is just ONE city in a large metropolitan area. Looking at what is called the Tri-County area, Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb county, Detroit is geographically less than half of Wayne county, and at about 913,000 people, has less than half the population of Wayne county. The entire metropolitan area has about 3.75 million people, maybe 4 million. Detroit does NOT speak for all of southeast Michigan, nor should it. JPM100 is right.
Jake 1:41PM (4/20/2009)
This just goes to prove my theory that actors should shut their pie-hole, unless they are reading a script written by someone who is not an idiot.
The California state govt. is a disaster, with out of control spending and increasing taxation because the damned politicians can't bear to cut spending.
Californians use most of the nation's energy, whine and cry anytime anyone wants to produce any of it there, and speaks to the rest of us condescendingly and insultingly about how we should follow their lead in terms of energy useage.
Meh. Go make Kindergarten Cop Part 2 or something and shut up.
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Ian 4:11PM (4/20/2009)
Unfortunately Jake the facts don't back up your theory. Its dis-information like this that stops intelligent discussion of the subject and real progress.
State Population Energy (Btu) Btu/person
Tx 23,507,783 11,744.40 499596.24
Ca 36,457,549 8,420.40 230964.51
Mi 10,095,643 2,998.00 296959.79
The population figures come from http://www.census.gov/
and the energy consumption from http://www.neo.ne.gov/ and are for 2006 the latest figures I could find.
Since Californians use less than half the energy per person than Texans and less than 80% of the energy that Michiganders do, there are at lest two states that could do with following there lead.
covermeyer 4:36PM (4/20/2009)
@Ian:
Ian your statistics are incorrect. I'm not sure why you used the the state of Nebraska to find energy stats, but it might explain why you are wrong. Follow this link to see that in total consumtion California is second behind Texas (Michigan is 10th). But in transportation costs California is number 1 (Michigan is 11th).
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/states/sep_sum/html/pdf/rank_use.pdf
California is not the green paridiase some would like you to believe. Just read up on the San Joaquin River some time to find out how California has raped the Earth.
Jake 6:09PM (4/20/2009)
-1 to Ian for failure in reading comprehension.
NewBack 6:41PM (4/20/2009)
Jake, I totally agree with you. Arnold is the worst example of any type of governmental leader, As a resident of California I and millions of others see the lies and other political BS that spews from Arnold's "pie hole". Every year our state budget gets worse and worse and is never done on time which causes state employees and business that have contract with the state to go without being paid, yet our great legislators could give a rats ass because they continue to get paid. Back to the issue of Arnold, the man spends more time in Colorado than California, he refuses to live in the governors mansion, so he lives mainly at his home in Colorado, which is a waste of money in California because our tax dollars pay for the up keep even though nobody lives there, bottom line, Arnold needs to back to Austria or where ever the hell he came from because he and his followers have done nothing for the people of California or anywhere else!
mroverlord 1:52PM (4/21/2009)
Just an FYI -
Texas uses more energy than California, but we are also self suffient on electricity, with capacity to spare. We do not fear building nuclear plants, with two in the permit stage that I have heard of. Texas also has the largest wind energy farms in the world, and they are still growing.
Taglane 1:43PM (4/20/2009)
Shut up Arnold you're embarrassing my state.
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dukeisduke 1:50PM (4/20/2009)
He does that simply by getting up in the morning.
bob 1:55PM (4/20/2009)
My guess that "green mobility" with this crowd means bicycles painted green for the middle and low income crowd and SUVS painted green for the privileged political class with all the up armor they can build in to them. We are supposed to listen to two governors who have run their states off a financial cliff?
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Frank 2:15PM (4/20/2009)
This is very telling. First the Democratic govenor of a state speaks about green tech. Then the Repiblican govenor of a state speaks about the same thing an hour later. Autoblog is there. Then they post a blog entry and it's all Arnold until you hit the jump. Why? Because Granhold is that bad? Because Arnold is that good? Or because Arnold is more famous? Something else?
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Al 2:53PM (4/20/2009)
Even though he is a terrible gov. I hate to say it but he does bring out a valid point in that we need stricter standards in the nation, like California and the other states that follow it have.
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