At the International Economic Development Council’s annual conference in Detroit, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pointed to climate resilience as one of the state’s competitive advantages to win investment from industries like data centers and semiconductors that need stable conditions to operate.
“With climate change, having predictability around energy is so crucial – and Michigan is really fortunate with where we are located on the map. We don’t have a lot of the same challenges that we’re seeing throughout other states.
“We certainly have had our share of ice storms and tornadoes touch down once a while. But it's not like hurricane season or some of the events that they've seen on the East Coast, West Coast or in the South. We’re largely protected from a lot of that.”
In an interview with Standard & Works, Maureen Donohue Krauss, President and CEO of the Detroit Regional Partnership, reinforced weather as part of Michigan’s value proposition:
“We have an internal phrase that we use – workforce, weather, and water.”
“Second-largest body of freshwater in the world. We’re top five nationally in being least disrupted by climate change and major weather events.”
Sometimes it’s good to have boring weather. We don’t hide from snow – we put it in our marketing materials – but our weather here really isn’t dramatic.”
S&W’S TAKE
For industries making bets on energy-and-water hungry infrastructure, Michigan is underscoring climate stability — backed by abundant fresh water — as an underappreciated asset.
