LANSING – Bankruptcy for General Motors means the state is finally starting to hit bottom, a grim Governor Jennifer Granholm said Monday. While the action means more job losses for the state, Michigan can take some comfort in the idea that a viable auto industry will remain in the state once GM and Chrysler complete their bankruptcies, she told reporters.

But there is no escaping the reality that “this is a very tough day for Michigan,” Granholm said.

In a press conference, Granholm re-emphasized that the state will aggressively pursue not only new vehicles that GM will make, but also stress to the nation and the world that Michigan has the industrial capacity to build the equipment and machines needed for the new environmental economy.

Doing the latter will require some aid from the U.S. government, Granholm said. And she said she is in conversation with President Barack Obama and his administration to find additional sources of help for Michigan.

She also deflected some criticism aimed at the Obama administration for its handling of the auto industry situation, saying if anyone else were in the Oval Office the industry would be looking at liquidation, not restructuring.

While Michigan is tough even in tough times, she said, it is critical that the state aggressively push to reinvent itself to meet the needs of a new environmentally-based economy.

“We must be building, the country must be building, the new green economy,” she said. “We are not throwing in the towel.”

With the filing of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which will allow the company to restructure and at least for the foreseeable future will be a company with at least 60 percent of its shares held by the U.S. government, the state will see job losses of at least 8,600 GM workers, Granholm said. It was unknown how many further jobs the state may see lost due to cuts at supplier plants, she said.

The company will be leaner, she said, and “for Michigan, leaner means job losses.”

The state did calculate in its May Revenue Estimating Conference the potential impact of a GM bankruptcy on revenues, Granholm said.

Granholm said she had “mixed feelings” at the bankruptcy announcement which had become evident a week ego. Her first feeling is sorrow for the families that will struggle because of the announcement and the plant closings that it represents.

However, she said she also wanted to express “relief and gratitude that we are going to have a viable auto industry.”

While the state is in the process of hitting bottom, she also said “we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The decision late Sunday by a New York City bankruptcy judge to approve the bankruptcy reorganization plan of Chrysler and allow its sale to Fiat Sp.A. of Italy is an important step toward Chrysler recouping its presence, she said.

And she said GM is on the path to have a similarly successful reorganization and possibly emerge from bankruptcy in no more than 60 days. As a result of the various agreements it had forged in the last two months, the company has been able to shed many of its liabilities which will help it control costs and losses.

But the company also announced the permanent or temporary closure of 14 plants across the nation, and seven of those plants are in Michigan. Five of the Michigan plants are scheduled for permanent closure.

Granholm said she had talked to all the mayors in the cities affected by the announcement.

But she also said the state will work aggressively to ensure that GM builds its new small car at the Lake Orion plant which will go on standby status beginning in September. More than 3,000 jobs of those affected in Michigan will be at the Lake Orion plant (which in the 1980s hosted then President Ronald Reagan as an example of new manufacturing), and she said the state is determined to see production of the new car at that site.

She also said other GM plants, such as Buick City in Flint, could serve as centers for manufacturing wind turbines and other equipment needed for a more environmentally-based economy.

While the government’s ownership of GM was sharply criticized by some Republicans, Granholm said the Obama administration was committed to preserving the auto industry. Its presence would help ensure that more vehicles are made in the United States than might be otherwise, she said.

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