Michigan Advance’s Rick Haglund ponders whether state and federal funding for automakers is “a critical public-private partnership needed to save the planet from greenhouse gas-spewing internal combustion engines, and reduce dependence on Chinese-made batteries and computer chips? Or is it corporate welfare gone wild?”
General Motors
Rick Haglund writes, “Motor vehicles and parts as a percentage of the state’s gross domestic product has fallen from 25% in the late 1960s to about 7% in 2018, according to data compiled by Michigan State University economist Charles Ballard. But the state’s economy needs to become even more diverse.”
The Defend Black Voters Coalition has called on Michigan-based corporations General Motors, Ford, DTE Energy, and CMS Energy to pledge to end campaign contributions to state lawmakers who are working to make it harder for Black people in Michigan to cast ballots with proposed voting restrictions.
“We’re talking about corporate contributions that helped elect the legislators driving the effort and supporting the effort to restrict voting, limit voting, and change election outcomes,” Center for Political Accountability President Bruce Freed said. “This creates risk for companies today. You not only have investors but consumers who will change their buying patterns as a result of this. It has a reputational impact on a company, and it has an impact on company employee morale.”
Dozens of Michigan company leaders spoke up Tuesday against a voter restriction package that was introduced by Republicans in the Legislature last month.
General Motors Company, which has been at the forefront of advanced powertrain research, offers just one fully electric vehicle — the Chevy Bolt. No hydrogen-powered vehicles are on the near horizon. Nevertheless, GM pushed the bar higher last month, surprising the auto industry by saying it plans to sell only “zero-emission” light-duty vehicles by 2035. That’s just 14 years, or little more than two new product cycles away.
Three Rivers functions in much the same way that it has for years. People still work in specific places that everyone knows about. The town’s citizens shop in stores and visit businesses where they are as likely as not to see someone they know. They take part in social and civic activities and groups, some of which have been around for quite a while. Whether we are aware of it or not, life in Three Rivers centers on its factories, which have changed a lot over time, but which have set many of the same economic and social patterns for generations.