Markell Wastes No Time In Kicking Ass
Building an electric car industry in Delaware is a win/win.
Delaware Company Receives Grant to Produce Electric Vehicles
Award is part of Markell’s vision for environmentally friendly economic development; latest in efforts to create jobs, promote climate prosperity
NEW CASTLE — One day after announcing Delaware’s participation in a landmark climate prosperity project, Gov. Jack Markell on Tuesday awarded a workforce training grant to AutoPort Inc. that will allow the Fortune 500 company to begin converting gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles in the First State.
The conversion of electric vehicles has the potential to create jobs in the long-term and is an example of how Delaware businesses can adapt to the new energy economy. Environmentally conscious customers wanting to purchase cars that do not pollute and that reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil present new markets for Delaware businesses.
The Markell administration awarded the grant to AutoPort to get the company’s automotive workers trained in assembling and handling high-power electric components for electric cars. This is a first step toward establishing an electric vehicle industry in Delaware and a first step in Markell’s climate prosperity initiative.
Go Jack!
I so love this!
I attended the event today. I am ecstatic at the direction the new Governor and his reinvigorated Dept. of Economic Development have taken. The “vision” thing is one of the most important aspects of sustained economic growth intertwined with environmental benefits and job creation and that has to start happening immediately. Today’s commitment shows that this administration gets it and I hope to use the chairmanship of the House Energy Committee to engage and accelerate, not only the discourse, but the actual momentum and reality of forwardly placing Delaware in snatching these opportunities. I think we can all be thankful for people like Willett Kempton, Alan Levin and Governor Markell and all the others in the community who are driving the discourse.
Very well said John and good luck with the committee.
Delaware is going to become to the U.S. what Singapore was to the Far East. We’ll have to give Jack an Asian ‘lucky name’ such as “Crouching Tiger”, and then for fun, we can make up names for past Governors, like “Vacationing Vicious Lump” or “Bush’s Catamite”.
“Bush’s Catamite”
OMG! I need ot invent a new emmoticon that stands for me loving on Reis’ comment.
I hope the Governor expands the target portfolio of clean fuel sources for mobility, beyond electricity-driven solutions.
We still generate 97+% of our electricity from nuclear, coal, gas, and oil. (Well, Delmarva Power does anyway).
As renewable electricity resources slowly come on-line, they will be best used and most needed for traditional fixed electrification needs (home, business, infrastructure, etc.).
I am certain Delmarva Power et al will be quite happy with 1000’s of cars beginning to draw from the grid, but it may not be the best long-term solution and perhaps not the best sustainable investment for Delaware’s economic development future.
Hydrogen breakthroughs are happening everyday. Unlike electric cars which run clean, but necessarily are source-powered by current “dirty” electricity generation, hydrogen can be used in traditional combustion engines and the only real emission is water vapor.
With new electrochemical processes, of sorts, Hydrogen holds the potential to be generated at the point-of-use (by non-electrolytic means) and stored indefinitely until usage.
In contrast, storing electricity remains a much more complicated proposition, which will always require large battery systems – at this time basically lead-acid car batteries.
I wrote about some of this here :
http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/2009/01/another-hopeful-development-in.html
Nonetheless, I applaud the intentions here. Electric cars will be a useful part of a diversity of clean fuel options moving forward.
Let’s just not put all our eggs in one basket.
I agree we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket, but I’m very excited about this development. It incorporates many things which should be our future – green energy and revived manufacturing. The U.S. needs to lead the world in the new economy if we want to continue on top.
Another solid technology in immediate development, capable of being retrofitted onto almost any existing gas combustion engine, is found in hydroxy gas supplementation systems.
Fitted to combustion engine vehicles, they displace gasoline and help it burn more efficiently, thus offering higher gas mileage and cleaner burning.
They are now the province of inventors and experimenters, but are increasingly being developed for serial production.
This technology would provide a short-term sector of employment and skilled jobs installing these systems, which are nonetheless fairly simple.
As fuel prices rise, people who can’t afford brand new “clean” cars can still avail themselves of cleaner car retrofit technology like this. Even 15-20% better fuel mileage on existing or older cars would be significant in the aggregate.
http://www.hhogames.com/
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/article974347.ece
How much money are we giving these folks?
How many jobs has Blue Water Wing created so far? (Besides lobbying jobs)
Perfect example of Republican short-sightedness. Ignoring long-term benefit for short-term gain is exactly what got us into this recession. Republicans would run America the same way Merrill Lynch and GM are run.
Agreed X. Tom, you are acting like a dolt.
I’m hearing a lot of big talk from the same people that brought me the Indian River Bridge and the SEED program. And didn’t the company we contracted go out of business?
I think I have a right to be skeptical.
It seems that the fine people of Delaware are feeling pretty good at these new initiatives. Unfortunately, all they do is put another nail in the coffin of Delaware’s moribund business competitiveness with the other states and the rest of the world. derekcrane