Obama, The Battery Story, and LED Lighting | GreenandSave.com | Green News, Tips, and Services for saving money, energy and the planet.

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GREENandSAVE Staff

Posted on Thursday 15th July 2010

President Obama visited the site of a future battery factory in Michigan on Thursday and gave a speech about a new American economy, an economy powered by batteries.

The battery story is one that Obama has told before. In Missiouri, for example, at a campaign speech for Senate candidate Robin Carnahan, he explained the connection between advanced battery manufacturing and new American jobs:

Just a few years ago, America had the capacity to build only 2 percent of the world's advanced batteries for electric and hybrid cars and trucks. Today, thanks to our policies, thanks to a new focus on clean energy and the work taking place at plants like Smith Electric, in five years we could have as much as 40 percent of the world's capacity to build these batteries - 40 percent. That means jobs right here in Missouri. It also means we're developing the expertise in a sector that is going to keep building and growing and innovating far into the future.

After Thursday's speech in Michigan, Obama's political opponents - Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), for one - were quick to point out that the president's theory connecting battery technology and US-based green jobs remains unproven:

Come back in five years. If this plant has 4,000 workers, then we can come back and say maybe it was a good investment. If this plant is shuttered because we overbuilt battery capacity in the United States of America, people will come back and say it was a poor choice. The thing is, we're risking taxpayer money.

We will come back in five years. Hopefully, that plant will have 4,000 workers. Hopefully, the US will produce close to half the advanced batteries in the world. Hopefully, we'll produce half the hyper-efficient electric cars then too. And, hopefully, by then, we will also have invested heavily in other energy-saving, job-creating technologies, like LED Lighting.

Yes, LEDs are a big part of GREENandSAVE's business, so, yes, we are biased. But there is no denying that LED Lighting is a market-ready technology that has enormous emissions-reducing, money-saving, and job-creating potential.