When President Barack Obama created a $787 Billion stimulus package earlier this year, there was hope aplenty that it would have immediate and meaningful effect on the economic crisis in the United States. Regions in the middle of the country that have been hit especially hard by the loss of job, who now have unemployment rates close to or over 10%, are in large part still waiting for that hope to turn into a reality, more specifically, they are still looking for jobs.

Obama has called for the U.S. heartland to stand strong in the face of hard times. And again, he is putting some money toward the claims. This time he has pledged 2.4 Billion as part of an effort to create green jobs and other programs to offset the difficulties of unemployment. Overall, there are 48 projects across 25 states that will get money under the deal, requiring grant awardees to match federal investment funds.

On the green job side, the concept is to jump-start manufacturing for batteries and other parts/ components for electric vehicles. Compared to the stimulus, that’s not much money- but for a region looking for anything it can find, it’s welcome news.

With the recent success of the Cash for Clunkers program, it appears that U.S. consumers are still interested in making new car purchases, and willing to get rid of their big SUV’s and trucks in favor of something with better gas mileage, though psychologically speaking, who knows if it is the gas mileage or the $4500 credit that makes the new purchases more attractive.

Obama spoke to a crowd at a motor home factory, certainly a part of the manufacturing world that is hurting right now, and offered them this message:

“This represents the largest investment in this kind of technology in American history. For too long, we failed to invest in this kind of innovative work, even as countries like China and Japan were racing ahead," he said.

Currently almost all battery manufacturing happens in Asia.

The factory is in Wakarusa, Indiana, and has an unemployment rate that was over 10% in June and has skyrocketed to 20% at times. It is estimated that the U.S. has lost 320,000 jobs in July and that the national unemployment rate will rise to 9.6%.

There are signs that the economy is turning around, though.

"What we're starting to see right now is businesses making some modest investments, starting to get back on their feet, but they're not hiring yet," said Obama in an MSNBC interview.

Not hiring doesn’t mean much to people who need jobs other than that there still aren’t any, but investment does mean that there will hopefully be jobs around the corner.

"The Midwest, generally, has taken some of the biggest hits over the last decade, and the question is can we start reinventing ourselves so that we can make things that are exported, and not just be constantly importing," continued Obama.

This is generally good news for the Midwest, which certainly has been hit hard by the economic crisis, and prominently so by the horrible performance of the auto industry. Investing in green vehicles is a smart, forward looking move, hopefully helping to get the automotive industry turn their own corner,both more quietly and more effectively on the wheels of electric.