President's Visit To Holland Focuses Attention On Michigan Battery Production

President Barack Obama spoke before a group of 250 invited guests Thursday at the ground breaking of a new battery plant in Holland, Mich.

Korea-based LG Chem broke ground on their new advanced car battery plant at Waverly Avenue and 48th Street.

"This is about more than building a new factory," said the President. "It's about building a better future for this city, for this state, and for this country." His prepared speech lasted about 20 minutes.

Making batteries for electric cars and hybrids is a new industry in the U.S., one that President Obama has helped subsidize.  And it starts in places like Holland, Mich.

Randy Thelen helped emcee the event.  It was his economic development group that convinced the company, LG Chem/Compact Power Inc., to come here.

"It's exciting, it's a day I'll remember forever," said Thelen.  "And I hope it's a day the community will remember forever."

Dozens of people from local tea parties lined the streets and holding signs outside the event. They said they're trying to send the President a clear message. "Stop the spending, fiscal responsibility and listen to your constituents," said Steve Redmond of the Holland/Zeeland Tea Party. "I think the reason tea parties have popped up all over the country is because there's a feeling that our elected officials aren't listening to us."

Families also camped outside on the road to catch a glimpse of the President. "We thought,  'What an opportunity,'" said Laura Tooker, who brought her two children from Allegan. "You never really get to see a sitting president."

The LG Chem/Compact Power plant will make batteries for the Chevy Volt and the Ford Focus Electric. Similar plants will be just a few miles away in Holland and Muskegon.

The state and federal governments have kicked in billions of dollars to help fund the car battery industry here and elsewhere in the U.S.

"To me, it's not strange that we would build five or six battery plants in Michigan," said Jim Wolter, a retired GVSU professoir who has been following the advancement of battery technology for the last 30 years. "Because we need to capture this as an American original."

Some criticize the government for not funding it sooner, some for subsidizing the business at all.

Wolter says the U.S. may not have invented the technology, but we need to be the ones to mass produce it. "This is an American dream, an American idea," he said.  "And I'm here to tell you, what we're doing here right now is world-wide, lead by America."

Not everyone is pleased with the notion of a sitting president at a ground breaking for a foreign company.  But Thelen says it's a non-issue, a huge global industry with a huge local effect.

"It's no surprise when you consider that this facility and others are going to try and electrify the vehicles of the world, it's a major global initiative and it warrants the presence of the President," he said.

The $300 million plant will employ 450 people by 2013.