Episode 53: Marshall Plans for America: The League of Audacious Leaders Imagining a Green Century

Just about now America needs some pretty big ideas for economic recovery, industrial transformation, and how to tackle climate change while driving inclusive growth. Today on Quarantime! a report of the boldest approaches to economic development in our nation today, hot off the press, direct from the visionary teams creating them.

1 A Marshall Plan for Middle America. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto famously committed his city to the Paris Climate Accord when the US government pulled out & believes that if his city is not for all of its citizens it’s not for Pittsburgh. He has worked with mayors across the region in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio to launch one of the biggest ideas in America today: A plan to reinvent the Ohio Valley’s extractive and carbon based economy towards a solar, regenerative and electric one. And not just any plan, but one at the scale of its namesake Marshall plan which rebuilt the European economy after World War II. The Ohio Valley has been the energy and manufacturing beating heart of America, but the region lags coastal cities in new industry employment and suffers from inequality, poor health outcomes and stagnation. For Peduto and team this is a once-in-a-century opportunity to drive transformative investment and stimulate industry which can lead the region, the nation and the world. A fundamental transition from one economy to another can define a nation and propel it forward, or tear it apart. What makes the difference is will, vision and leadership. Today Mayor Peduto will share his approach with us. 

2 The Infinitely Renewable Workforce. Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio is a leader who believes we need that new Marshall Plan to reset decades-old and decaying economics that favored short term profits over long term vitality. She has seen how an innovation center that brought us human flight, helped build the 20th century, and help humanity leave the planet can be dismissed all too often and left behind as industrial waste when workers are seen as a commodity. She has experienced the wreckage in the forms of hollowed out communities, and lives. All too often discussions about breakthrough innovation lead to discussions of about the coasts. Silicon Valley not the Ohio Valley. Nan joins us to share why she is so passionate about the power of America when it celebrates the diversity and dignity of all of the citizens and all of the states that make work matter.

3 Thinking Big, Very Big. How does a region hatch such bold plans? Who must come together, to author a future that is inclusive, thriving and works across vast urban, rural and Appalachian regions. We’ll be joined by Dr. Leslie Marshall from the University of Pittsburgh, lead author of the plan, and Grant Ervin, Pittsburgh’s Chief Resiliency Officer for a view on how these ideas can be financed, how a region invents a 21st century circular economy, and the partnerships that will make this possible. Their lessons may well fire imaginations across America, moving us to bold action when it’s needed most. 

4 For California & Planet Earth: An Economy Powered by Nature and Life Itself. John Cumbers, CEO & founder of the synthetic biology innovation network SynBioBeta & author of California’s bio-manufacturing economic development plan shares how we might co-design with the most successful maker of thriving ecosystems on the planet, Nature herself. In this biological century we must move from manufacturing that brute forces & strip mines Nature to a bio-economy where nature itself helps us manufacture energy, incubate clean water systems, grow alternatives to plastics, & brew rather than construct buildings. What seems like science fiction is the leading edge of investment and enterprise formation today. California, with its unparalleled tech, life science, agricultural & entrepreneurial sectors is set to lead the way.