Video: Clean Energy Economy Restores Hope In Michigan

by Brad Johnson Posted on October 31, 2011 at 3:30 pm

While fossil-fueled conservatives hypocritically deride clean-energy investment as a failure, millions of Americans have found good-paying work in green jobs, restoring their hope of a better future. Advanced battery manufacturer A123 Systems has created 1,000 jobs through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan program, now under attack by House Republicans. The Energy Department helped one of the workers building the advanced batteries needed for electric and hybrid vehicles, Annette Herrera, tell her story. “Prior to coming to A123, I was unemployed. I was laid off for two and a half years,” she tells the camera from her station in the Romulus, MI, factory. When she heard about the plants opening, she applied and said she was willing to do any kind of work. She nearly broke into tears when she discussed how hard it is to find work in the depressed economy, crippled by conservative ideology:

There’s a lot of people still out there, and they want to work. And they need jobs. And this is a great start.

Watch it:

“It’s a step to the future,” Herrera concludes, enthused not only about finding a job but also about being part of the greater mission to repower our nation.