Good news

An all-around "good news" story here. This part, I thought, was the best:

"We want to re-brand Michigan as the alternative energy capital of the world," Granholm said.

And

"What we need to do is take a hard policy look at providing incentives for the use of these solar panels in Michigan," Granholm told The Detroit News. "In Germany they created 170,000 jobs by changing the incentives for the use of wind and solar. We ought to be doing the same thing in Michigan."

Earlier this year, Granholm talked a great deal about ethanol, which ... not something worth getting too excited about.

It's unfortunate that the state's budget is in such a mess, because this is the kind of thing the state needs to get hot about. It's hard to argue against encouraging the use of an alternative energy product that is created here in Michigan, but we've got better wind energy potential in this state than we do solar power.

Michigan will have a hard time rebranding itself as the alternative energy capital of the nation. California is already well ahead of us, in both use of things like wind and also in encouraging research and manufacturing. To wit, all of those years of mocking California as the "Left Coast" are about to bite those of us living in flyover country, and bite us hard. The age of the supergeek is upon us, and he found an early home out along the Pacific Coast.