1 00:00:00,578 --> 00:00:03,496 Well, I was introduced as 2 00:00:03,496 --> 00:00:05,528 the former Governor of Michigan, 3 00:00:05,528 --> 00:00:08,544 but actually I'm a scientist. 4 00:00:08,544 --> 00:00:11,536 All right, a political scientist, it doesn't really count, 5 00:00:11,536 --> 00:00:15,332 but my laboratory was the laboratory of democracy 6 00:00:15,332 --> 00:00:18,488 that is Michigan, and, like any good scientist, 7 00:00:18,488 --> 00:00:21,330 I was experimenting with policy 8 00:00:21,330 --> 00:00:24,024 about what would achieve the greatest good 9 00:00:24,024 --> 00:00:26,133 for the greatest number. 10 00:00:26,133 --> 00:00:30,411 But there were three problems, three enigmas 11 00:00:30,411 --> 00:00:32,945 that I could not solve, 12 00:00:32,945 --> 00:00:36,423 and I want to share with you those problems, 13 00:00:36,423 --> 00:00:38,429 but most importantly, 14 00:00:38,429 --> 00:00:42,185 I think I figured out a proposal for a solution. 15 00:00:42,185 --> 00:00:44,054 The first problem 16 00:00:44,054 --> 00:00:46,045 that not just Michigan, but every state, faces is, 17 00:00:46,045 --> 00:00:49,364 how do you create good jobs in America 18 00:00:49,364 --> 00:00:51,112 in a global economy? 19 00:00:51,112 --> 00:00:54,604 So let me share with you some empirical data from my lab. 20 00:00:54,604 --> 00:00:59,114 I was elected in 2002 and, at the end of my first year in office in 2003, 21 00:00:59,114 --> 00:01:01,646 I got a call from one of my staff members, who said, 22 00:01:01,646 --> 00:01:04,014 "Gov, we have a big problem. 23 00:01:04,014 --> 00:01:07,634 We have a little tiny community called Greenville, Michigan, 24 00:01:07,634 --> 00:01:09,896 population 8,000, 25 00:01:09,896 --> 00:01:12,691 and they are about to lose their major employer, 26 00:01:12,691 --> 00:01:17,510 which is a refrigerator factory that's operated by Electrolux." 27 00:01:17,510 --> 00:01:20,189 And I said, "Well, how many people work at Electrolux?" 28 00:01:20,189 --> 00:01:25,119 And he said, "3,000 of the 8,000 people in Greenville." 29 00:01:25,119 --> 00:01:27,900 So it is a one-company town. 30 00:01:27,900 --> 00:01:32,828 And Electrolux was going to go to Mexico. 31 00:01:32,828 --> 00:01:35,716 So I said, "Forget that. I'm the new Governor. 32 00:01:35,716 --> 00:01:38,004 We can fix this. We're going to go to Greenville 33 00:01:38,004 --> 00:01:39,972 with my whole cabinet and we will just 34 00:01:39,972 --> 00:01:42,877 make Electrolux an offer they can't refuse." 35 00:01:42,877 --> 00:01:45,308 So I brought my whole cabinet, 36 00:01:45,308 --> 00:01:49,020 and we met with all of the pooh-bahs of little Greenville -- 37 00:01:49,020 --> 00:01:52,250 the mayor, the city manager, the head of the community college -- 38 00:01:52,250 --> 00:01:55,845 and we basically emptied our pockets 39 00:01:55,845 --> 00:01:59,138 and put all of our chips on the table, 40 00:01:59,138 --> 00:02:03,266 incentives, you name it, to convince Electrolux to stay, 41 00:02:03,266 --> 00:02:04,917 and as we made our pile of chips, 42 00:02:04,917 --> 00:02:10,024 we slid them across the table to the management of Electrolux. 43 00:02:10,024 --> 00:02:14,132 And in the pile were things like zero taxes for 20 years, 44 00:02:14,132 --> 00:02:18,348 or that we'd help to build a new factory for the company, 45 00:02:18,348 --> 00:02:21,141 we'd help to finance it. The UAW, who represented the workers, 46 00:02:21,141 --> 00:02:24,980 said they would offer unprecedented concessions, 47 00:02:24,980 --> 00:02:29,033 sacrifices to just keep those jobs in Greenville. 48 00:02:29,033 --> 00:02:31,911 So the management of Electrolux took our pile, 49 00:02:31,911 --> 00:02:34,724 our list of incentives, and they went outside the room 50 00:02:34,724 --> 00:02:37,244 for 17 minutes, 51 00:02:37,244 --> 00:02:39,475 and they came back in and they said, 52 00:02:39,475 --> 00:02:42,416 "Wow, this is the most generous 53 00:02:42,416 --> 00:02:46,905 any community has ever been to try to keep jobs here. 54 00:02:46,905 --> 00:02:50,300 But there's nothing you can do 55 00:02:50,300 --> 00:02:54,589 to compensate for the fact that we can pay $1.57 an hour 56 00:02:54,589 --> 00:02:57,847 in Juarez, Mexico. So we're leaving." 57 00:02:57,847 --> 00:03:00,852 And they did. And when they did, it was like 58 00:03:00,852 --> 00:03:04,108 a nuclear bomb went off in little Greenville. 59 00:03:04,108 --> 00:03:06,423 In fact, they did implode the factory. 60 00:03:06,423 --> 00:03:10,401 That's a guy that is walking on his last day of work. 61 00:03:10,401 --> 00:03:14,425 And on the month that the last refrigerator rolled off the assembly line, 62 00:03:14,425 --> 00:03:17,065 the employees of Electrolux in Greenville, Michigan, 63 00:03:17,065 --> 00:03:22,730 had a gathering for themselves that they called the last supper. 64 00:03:22,730 --> 00:03:25,713 It was in a big pavilion in Greenville, an indoor pavilion, 65 00:03:25,713 --> 00:03:30,202 and I went to it because I was so frustrated as Governor 66 00:03:30,202 --> 00:03:34,099 that I couldn't stop the outflow of these jobs, 67 00:03:34,099 --> 00:03:36,622 and I wanted to grieve with them, 68 00:03:36,622 --> 00:03:39,942 and as I went into the room-- there's thousands of people there. 69 00:03:39,942 --> 00:03:43,685 It was a just big thing. People were eating boxed lunches 70 00:03:43,685 --> 00:03:47,845 on roundtop tables, and there was a sad band playing music, 71 00:03:47,845 --> 00:03:51,582 or a band playing sad music, probably both. (Laughter) 72 00:03:51,582 --> 00:03:54,809 And this guy comes up to me, 73 00:03:54,809 --> 00:03:58,549 and he's got tattoos and his ponytail and his baseball cap on, 74 00:03:58,549 --> 00:04:01,167 and he had his two daughters with him, 75 00:04:01,167 --> 00:04:04,774 and he said, "Gov, these are my two daughters." 76 00:04:04,774 --> 00:04:07,822 He said, "I'm 48 years old, 77 00:04:07,822 --> 00:04:12,380 and I have worked at this factory for 30 years. 78 00:04:12,380 --> 00:04:15,036 I went from high school to factory. 79 00:04:15,036 --> 00:04:17,644 My father worked at this factory," he said. 80 00:04:17,644 --> 00:04:20,493 "My grandfather worked at this factory. 81 00:04:20,493 --> 00:04:25,516 All I know is how to make refrigerators." 82 00:04:25,516 --> 00:04:26,869 And he looked at his daughters, 83 00:04:26,869 --> 00:04:29,357 and he puts his hand on his chest, 84 00:04:29,357 --> 00:04:31,907 and he says, "So, Gov, tell me, 85 00:04:31,907 --> 00:04:37,235 who is ever going to hire me? 86 00:04:37,235 --> 00:04:40,668 Who is ever going to hire me?" 87 00:04:40,668 --> 00:04:44,190 And that was asked not just by that guy 88 00:04:44,190 --> 00:04:46,868 but by everyone in the pavilion, 89 00:04:46,868 --> 00:04:52,708 and frankly, by every worker at one of the 50,000 factories 90 00:04:52,708 --> 00:04:57,020 that closed in the first decade of this century. 91 00:04:57,020 --> 00:04:59,914 Enigma number one: How do you create jobs 92 00:04:59,914 --> 00:05:02,347 in America in a global economy? 93 00:05:02,347 --> 00:05:04,647 Number two, very quickly: 94 00:05:04,647 --> 00:05:07,379 How do you solve global climate change 95 00:05:07,379 --> 00:05:11,716 when we don't even have a national energy policy in this country 96 00:05:11,716 --> 00:05:16,644 and when gridlock in Congress seems to be the norm? 97 00:05:16,644 --> 00:05:19,806 In fact, there was a poll that was done recently 98 00:05:19,806 --> 00:05:24,083 and the pollster compared Congress's approval ratings 99 00:05:24,083 --> 00:05:26,513 to a number of other unpleasant things, 100 00:05:26,513 --> 00:05:30,033 and it was found, in fact, that Congress's approval rating 101 00:05:30,033 --> 00:05:32,915 is worse than cockroaches, 102 00:05:32,915 --> 00:05:39,907 lice, Nickelback the band, root canals and Donald Trump. (Laughter) 103 00:05:39,907 --> 00:05:44,186 But wait, the good news is it's at least better 104 00:05:44,186 --> 00:05:49,042 than meth labs and gonorrhea. (Laughter) 105 00:05:49,042 --> 00:05:52,867 We got a problem, folks. 106 00:05:52,867 --> 00:05:54,505 So it got me thinking, what is it? 107 00:05:54,505 --> 00:05:58,267 What in the laboratory that I see out there, 108 00:05:58,267 --> 00:06:00,417 the laboratories of democracy, what has happened? 109 00:06:00,417 --> 00:06:03,116 What policy prescriptions have happened 110 00:06:03,116 --> 00:06:04,908 that actually cause changes to occur 111 00:06:04,908 --> 00:06:08,475 and that have been accepted in a bipartisan way? 112 00:06:08,475 --> 00:06:09,753 So if I asked you, for example, 113 00:06:09,753 --> 00:06:12,233 what was the Obama Administration policy 114 00:06:12,233 --> 00:06:15,347 that caused massive changes across the country, 115 00:06:15,347 --> 00:06:16,635 what would you say? 116 00:06:16,635 --> 00:06:20,430 You might say Obamacare, except for those were not voluntary changes. 117 00:06:20,430 --> 00:06:22,971 As we know, only half the states have opted in. 118 00:06:22,971 --> 00:06:26,480 We might say the Recovery Act, but those didn't require policy changes. 119 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:30,831 The thing that caused massive policy changes to occur 120 00:06:30,831 --> 00:06:33,251 was Race to the Top for education. 121 00:06:33,251 --> 00:06:36,493 Why? The government put a $4.5 billion pot 122 00:06:36,493 --> 00:06:39,939 and said to the governors across the country, compete for it. 123 00:06:39,939 --> 00:06:43,115 Forty-eight governors competed, 124 00:06:43,115 --> 00:06:46,414 convincing 48 state legislatures to essentially 125 00:06:46,414 --> 00:06:48,700 raise standards for high schoolers 126 00:06:48,700 --> 00:06:51,011 so that they all take a college prep curriculum. 127 00:06:51,011 --> 00:06:56,397 Forty-eight states opted in, creating a national [education] policy from the bottom up. 128 00:06:56,397 --> 00:06:59,000 So I thought, well, why can't we do something like that 129 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:03,046 and create a clean energy jobs race to the top? 130 00:07:03,046 --> 00:07:05,397 Because after all, if you look at the context, 131 00:07:05,397 --> 00:07:09,375 1.6 trillion dollars has been invested in the past eight years 132 00:07:09,375 --> 00:07:11,317 from the private sector globally, 133 00:07:11,317 --> 00:07:13,689 and every dollar represents a job, 134 00:07:13,689 --> 00:07:15,284 and where are those jobs going? 135 00:07:15,284 --> 00:07:17,708 Well, they're going to places that have policy, like China. 136 00:07:17,708 --> 00:07:19,730 In fact, I was in China to see what they were doing, 137 00:07:19,730 --> 00:07:22,438 and they were putting on a dog-and-pony show for the group that I was with, 138 00:07:22,438 --> 00:07:25,441 and I was standing in the back of the room during one of the demonstrations 139 00:07:25,441 --> 00:07:27,804 and standing next to one of the Chinese officials, 140 00:07:27,804 --> 00:07:29,466 and we were watching, and he says, 141 00:07:29,466 --> 00:07:34,100 "So, Gov, when do you think the U.S. is going to get national energy policy?" 142 00:07:34,100 --> 00:07:37,668 And I said, "Oh my God -- Congress, gridlock, who knows?" 143 00:07:37,668 --> 00:07:41,682 And this is what he did, he goes, he says, 144 00:07:41,682 --> 00:07:44,419 "Take your time." 145 00:07:44,419 --> 00:07:49,057 Because they see our passivity as their opportunity. 146 00:07:49,057 --> 00:07:51,990 So what if we decided to create 147 00:07:51,990 --> 00:07:54,689 a challenge to the governors of the country, 148 00:07:54,689 --> 00:07:57,495 and the price to entry into this competition 149 00:07:57,495 --> 00:08:01,143 used the same amount that the bipartisan group approved in Congress 150 00:08:01,143 --> 00:08:03,833 for the Race to the Top for education, 4.5 billion, 151 00:08:03,833 --> 00:08:06,216 which sounds like a lot, but actually it's less than 152 00:08:06,216 --> 00:08:08,705 one tenth of one percent of federal spending. 153 00:08:08,705 --> 00:08:10,729 It's a rounding error on the federal side. 154 00:08:10,729 --> 00:08:14,647 But price to entry into that competition would be, 155 00:08:14,647 --> 00:08:17,952 you could just, say, use the President's goal. 156 00:08:17,952 --> 00:08:21,025 He wants Congress to adopt a clean energy standard 157 00:08:21,025 --> 00:08:23,300 of 80 percent by 2030, 158 00:08:23,300 --> 00:08:25,279 in other words, that you'd have to get 80 percent 159 00:08:25,279 --> 00:08:28,929 of your energy from clean sources by the year 2030. 160 00:08:28,929 --> 00:08:31,630 Why not ask all of the states to do that instead? 161 00:08:31,630 --> 00:08:33,621 And imagine what might happen, 162 00:08:33,621 --> 00:08:35,609 because every region has something to offer. 163 00:08:35,609 --> 00:08:38,591 You might take states like Iowa and Ohio -- 164 00:08:38,591 --> 00:08:40,608 two very important political states, by the way -- 165 00:08:40,608 --> 00:08:42,496 those two governors, and they would say, 166 00:08:42,496 --> 00:08:45,211 we're going to lead the nation in producing 167 00:08:45,211 --> 00:08:47,813 the wind turbines and the wind energy. 168 00:08:47,813 --> 00:08:50,984 You might say the solar states, the sun belt, 169 00:08:50,984 --> 00:08:54,684 we're going to be the states that produce solar energy for the country, 170 00:08:54,684 --> 00:08:56,854 and maybe Jerry Brown says, "Well, I'm going to create 171 00:08:56,854 --> 00:08:59,031 an industry cluster in California 172 00:08:59,031 --> 00:09:00,870 to be able to produce the solar panels 173 00:09:00,870 --> 00:09:02,519 so that we're not buying them from China 174 00:09:02,519 --> 00:09:04,382 but we're buying them from the U.S." 175 00:09:04,382 --> 00:09:07,812 In fact, every region of the country could do this. 176 00:09:07,812 --> 00:09:11,918 You see, you've got solar and wind opportunity all across the nation. 177 00:09:11,918 --> 00:09:15,922 In fact, if you look just at the upper and northern states 178 00:09:15,922 --> 00:09:18,097 in the West, they could do geothermal, 179 00:09:18,097 --> 00:09:20,409 or you could look at Texas and say, 180 00:09:20,409 --> 00:09:23,777 we could lead the nation in the solutions to smart grid. 181 00:09:23,777 --> 00:09:27,869 In the middle eastern states which have access to forests 182 00:09:27,884 --> 00:09:30,208 and to agricultural waste, they might say, 183 00:09:30,208 --> 00:09:32,809 we're going to lead the nation in biofuels. 184 00:09:32,809 --> 00:09:35,325 In the upper northeast, we're going to lead the nation 185 00:09:35,325 --> 00:09:38,189 in energy efficiency solutions. 186 00:09:38,189 --> 00:09:41,158 Along the eastern seaboard, we're going to lead the nation 187 00:09:41,158 --> 00:09:42,977 in offshore wind. 188 00:09:42,977 --> 00:09:45,560 You might look at Michigan and say, we're going to lead the nation 189 00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:49,454 in producing the guts for the electric vehicle, like the lithium ion battery. 190 00:09:49,454 --> 00:09:52,861 Every region has something to offer, 191 00:09:52,861 --> 00:09:55,183 and if you created a competition, 192 00:09:55,183 --> 00:09:59,301 it respects the states and it respects federalism. 193 00:09:59,301 --> 00:10:02,855 It's opt-in. You might even get Texas and South Carolina, 194 00:10:02,855 --> 00:10:05,525 who didn't opt into the education Race to the Top, 195 00:10:05,525 --> 00:10:07,926 you might even get them to opt in. Why? 196 00:10:07,926 --> 00:10:10,477 Because Republican and Democratic governors 197 00:10:10,477 --> 00:10:12,131 love to cut ribbons. 198 00:10:12,131 --> 00:10:16,445 We want to bring jobs. I'm just saying. 199 00:10:16,445 --> 00:10:19,065 And it fosters innovation at the state level 200 00:10:19,065 --> 00:10:21,526 in these laboratories of democracy. 201 00:10:21,526 --> 00:10:25,832 Now, any of you who are watching anything about politics lately 202 00:10:25,832 --> 00:10:28,589 might say, "Okay, great idea, but really? 203 00:10:28,589 --> 00:10:31,221 Congress putting four and a half billion dollars on the table? 204 00:10:31,221 --> 00:10:33,494 They can't agree to anything." 205 00:10:33,494 --> 00:10:36,789 So you could wait and go through Congress, 206 00:10:36,789 --> 00:10:39,365 although you should be very impatient. 207 00:10:39,365 --> 00:10:47,269 Or, you renegades, we could go around Congress. 208 00:10:47,269 --> 00:10:48,827 Go around Congress. 209 00:10:48,827 --> 00:10:55,455 What if we created a private sector challenge to the governors? 210 00:10:55,455 --> 00:11:00,415 What if several of the high-net worth companies 211 00:11:00,415 --> 00:11:04,805 and individuals who are here at TED decided 212 00:11:04,805 --> 00:11:08,333 that they would create, band together, just a couple of them, 213 00:11:08,333 --> 00:11:11,893 and create a national competition to the governors 214 00:11:11,893 --> 00:11:14,149 to have a race to the top 215 00:11:14,149 --> 00:11:16,818 and see how the governors respond? 216 00:11:16,818 --> 00:11:21,706 What if it all started here at TED? 217 00:11:21,706 --> 00:11:24,365 What if you were here 218 00:11:24,365 --> 00:11:29,713 when we figured out how to crack the code 219 00:11:29,713 --> 00:11:35,159 to create good paying jobs in America -- (Applause) -- 220 00:11:35,159 --> 00:11:38,880 and get national energy policy 221 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:44,858 and we created a national energy strategy from the bottom up? 222 00:11:44,858 --> 00:11:48,309 Because, dear TEDsters, 223 00:11:48,309 --> 00:11:51,071 if you are impatient like I am, 224 00:11:51,071 --> 00:11:54,629 you know that our economic competitors, 225 00:11:54,629 --> 00:11:58,069 our other nations, are in the game 226 00:11:58,069 --> 00:12:00,421 and are eating us for lunch. 227 00:12:00,421 --> 00:12:04,967 And we can get in the game or not. 228 00:12:04,967 --> 00:12:09,286 We can be at the table or we can be on the table. 229 00:12:09,286 --> 00:12:11,707 And I don't know about you, 230 00:12:11,707 --> 00:12:14,414 but I prefer to dine. 231 00:12:14,414 --> 00:12:18,414 Thank you all so much. (Applause)