Put Green Cars On the Highway

Imagine it's 6 p.m. and you have just arrived home from work in your U.S.-made hybrid electric vehicle. You plug it into the outlet in your garage to charge it overnight. One charge takes you, on average, 50 miles, so you used no gasoline today— a great relief, since gas is now $5.75 per gallon. In fact, since you charge the car's battery at night when the demand for energy is less, your per-mile cost to operate your car is a pittance compared with what it cost to operate your old gasoline-powered car.

In this compelling picture of the year 2012, which I borrowed from Thomas Friedman's book "Hot, Flat and Crowded," your car is no longer just a means of transportation. It is an advanced energy-storage device. The high-tech battery that powers it also powers your home and maybe your office. The battery even earns you income, since you sell the extra power it generates back to the grid during periods of peak demand. It's also recharged using energy generated from your U.S.-made rooftop solar panels and the small backyard wind turbine you were able to buy because tax credits made it easy and affordable.

President Barack Obama must realize this vision. The United States can choose to either profit from the new generation of electric vehicles—specifically, plug-in hybrids that are researched, designed and manufactured in America —or it can lose out on the immense economic benefits this new technology will bring.

Seizing this opportunity will require an unprecedented effort to concentrate the nation's greatest resources from industry, government, academia, the national laboratories and the workforce on accelerating the domestic development and commercialization of new energy technologies.

In Michigan, the nation's auto-manufacturing center, we are acutely aware of the need for change. This state has been slammed by the loss of car-manufacturing jobs, partly a result of the industry falling behind in hybrid technology. We now intend to take the lead in plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. In September 2008 we established Centers of Energy Excellence, bringing university researchers together with private firms to develop the next generation of advanced batteries. Simultaneously, Michigan is hatching an initiative to bring scientists from the U.S. Defense and Energy departments to work on advanced batteries for both the federal government and the commercial market. These experts have at their fingertips the technology for the smart batteries needed to power the next generation of automobiles. The issue now is who will win the race between Japan, China, South Korea and the United States to manufacture them.

Now we need aggressive policies to foster clean-technology jobs. We should start by providing financial support, including tax incentives, so companies can take these technologies from the research lab to full-scale manufacturing. Citizens who purchase these vehicles should also be rewarded through tax incentives. A key part of such a plan would be to build a nationwide smart power grid to serve as a backbone for the plug-in economy.

Like Franklin Roosevelt, Obama must have the courage to increase significantly the financial resources of the national technology initiative. Like John Kennedy, he must align U.S. policies, programs and politics to create a national vision on a grand scale, so that every citizen understands that America's resolve and commitment are commensurate with the challenges that must be overcome in turning our Rust Belt into a "green belt."

Granholm is governor of Michigan.

© 2008