Ex-governor sees the light on green issues

In a meeting this week with the Globe editorial board, Granholm freely admitted she was once part of the problem. Despite a highly-praised record as governor on green jobs and renewable energy, she was a self-described “Luddite’’ on the auto industry, joining the Michigan congressional delegation in saying higher fuel efficiency standards might kill jobs. She endorsed Massachusetts Senator John Kerry for president in 2004, believing Kerry would go slow on increasing fuel standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2015. Granholm told the New York Times she was reassured Kerry “wants to work with the auto manufacturers.’’

We know where “working with’’ Detroit got us— the near-collapse of General Motors and Chrysler. Granholm said the crisis was pivotal for her as she travels the country in the hope that state-level clean energy innovations and investments can be knit together into national legislation. Earlier this year, a Pew report found that the United States, once the world leader in investments, is now behind China and Germany and risks a further slide without “predictable, ambitious, long-term clean energy policies.’’

Granholm learned through her experience as chief executive of one of the most fragile state economies in the nation that there is little chance of advancing environmental awareness among Americans unless it translates into jobs and energy savings in the pocketbook. At the Globe, she talked about the growth of the battery industry in Michigan around the Chevy Volt and other electric vehicles. She mentioned how German citizens are putting solar panels on residential rooftops, with residents being paid to produce electricity for the general grid. That is environmentalism people can understand, she said.