WITH THE gusto of a liberated politician, former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm said the American ethos of “consume, consume, consume,’’ has to give way to a national environmental policy. She said it also has to give way to a new way of speaking to Americans about the environment.

“Terms like climate change, greenhouse gases, cap and trade, people don’t understand them, they don’t know what they mean,’’ said Granholm, now a senior clean energy adviser for the Pew Charitable Trusts. “Those terms are not going to fly on the national level. We’re at the point where we have to talk about pragmatic policy. We have to get the debate to the everyday level.’’

In a meeting this week with the Globe editorial board, Granholm freely admitted she was once part of the problem. Despite a highly-praised record as governor on green jobs and renewable energy, she was a self-described “Luddite’’ on the auto industry, joining the Michigan congressional delegation in saying higher fuel efficiency standards might kill jobs. She endorsed Massachusetts Senator John Kerry for president in 2004, believing Kerry would go slow on increasing fuel standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2015. Granholm told the New York Times she was reassured Kerry “wants to work with the auto manufacturers.’’

We know where “working with’’ Detroit got us— the near-collapse of General Motors and Chrysler. Granholm said the crisis was pivotal for her as she travels the country in the hope that state-level clean energy innovations and investments can be knit together into national legislation. Earlier this year, a Pew report found that the United States, once the world leader in investments, is now behind China and Germany and risks a further slide without “predictable, ambitious, long-term clean energy policies.’’

Granholm learned through her experience as chief executive of one of the most fragile state economies in the nation that there is little chance of advancing environmental awareness among Americans unless it translates into jobs and energy savings in the pocketbook. At the Globe, she talked about the growth of the battery industry in Michigan around the Chevy Volt and other electric vehicles. She mentioned how German citizens are putting solar panels on residential rooftops, with residents being paid to produce electricity for the general grid. That is environmentalism people can understand, she said.

But efforts by sitting politicians to get Americans to reconsider consumption and fully connect clean energy to the economy have reached a stalemate. To his credit, President Obama has raised fuel efficiency standards and is trying to establish significant greenhouse gas limits through the Environmental Protection Agency. But Republicans who oppose business regulations and Democrats from fossil fuel states have killed comprehensive climate change legislation and are relentlessly attacking the EPA. Obama has been reduced to a solar plant speech here and a wind-turbine photo-op there. That is not national policy.

At the state level, Granholm lauded Governor Patrick’s goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. The state says nearly 50,000 jobs could be created through new technologies by 2020. But it is highly uncertain how realistic that is.

Meanwhile, although the majority of Massachusetts residents believe global warming is a serious problem, it is far behind the economy, education, health care, fuel prices, and taxes as a high priority, according to a recent poll by MassINC. The poll found “no indication that residents concerned about global warming make an extra effort to carpool, walk, or ride public transportation.’’

As long as global warming remains so low a priority, any goal to combat it will be a political football. Witness how the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was embraced, then rejected by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney before it was embraced again by Patrick. “If we don’t have a plan,’’ Granholm said, “We may get to a place where you will create a market for clean energy, but you don’t have the tools to compete with China.’’ Coming from a former Luddite on the auto industry, her warning is worth warming to.

Derrick Z. Jackson can be reached at jackson@globe.com.

© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.