In her weekly radio address, the governor said today that Michigan ’s clean energy economy continues to grow with the state receiving a federal grant this week of almost $6 million to train more than 1,000 workers and place them into green jobs.

“Green jobs range from the construction workers who install solar panels or insulation in your house to the engineer who researches and designs the product,” the governor said.  “People who receive training through this grant will work in the fields of advanced battery production, energy-efficient building construction and solar energy.  They’ll be training for occupations such as engineers, technicians, assemblers and installers.”

The U.S. Department of Labor grant is funded by the federal Recovery Act.  The Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth will administer the grant in partnership with the Council for Labor and Economic Growth, the state’s workforce investment board.

This week’s federal grant is the third one Michigan has received this month for training people for green jobs.  Earlier, Michigan received more than $18 million in Recovery Act funds to train workers for the clean energy economy.

Key messages:

• These federal grants complement Michigan ’s Green Jobs Initiative which is helping to ensure that green companies have the trained workers they need to grow and prosper.
• A recent state report showed that Michigan has more than 109,000 green jobs, but that number is growing.  In 2009 alone, the work of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Michigan Economic Growth Authority set the stage for more than 20,000 green jobs to be created or retained.
• The Recovery Act funds for job training received by Michigan this month reinforce the economic strategy that we developed seven years ago.  In that time Michigan has invested more than $1 billion to help nurture the growth of clean energy and green manufacturing in our state, from advanced batteries and electric vehicles to solar panels and wind turbines.
• Our investments, together with Recovery Act dollars, are producing green jobs and making Michigan ’s economic future brighter… and greener.  Michigan is moving from the Rust Belt to the Green Belt.