Posted on 09/02/2011 6:05:19 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Inside a factory in Willoughby, Ohio, Ashlawn Energy is teaming with a local utility and other partners to design and build flow batteries, which when fully assembled will be as big as a house.
The company says it hopes to create a new U.S. manufacturing base and hire more than 200 people within about four years. But to get started, Ashlawn needed help. That's where Uncle Sam came in.
The company got about $3.5 million, part of President Obama's plan to stimulate the economy and create millions of green jobs. How many have been created by this project so far? About a dozen.
If you do the math, using stimulus dollars and the number of jobs created here and elsewhere, it looks like big waste of taxpayer money and that's what critics claim. Even those who support the president's green initiatives on energy policy grounds find fault with it as a jobs program.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
The most recent closure was in Massachusetts, and an earlier one in California. Two and maybe more have closed. Ninth story down the page:
http://search.foxtab.com/?q=Massachusetts%20solar%20plant%20closure&s=2&chnl=fxmoz
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That second picture looks like Amish cobblers building a highway. lol.
Nah, it's the cobbler's elves. Can't you see the pointy ears? ;-)
LLS
LLS
I think of those every time someone mentions a government jobs program. That highway was being built when no small number of prominent americans were singing Hitler’s praise. What is going on in this country right now is very different, but also very similar in some disturbing ways.
Hitler actually bussed city professionals out to the sticks to do what the guys in the picture are doing. It was a JOB, after all. It wasn’t slave labor (yet), but it was pretty close to it.
LOL. I actually saw Pic #2 in real life in China. I was starting up fertilizer plants in China for seven months over ‘76 - ‘77. They poured the foundation for a steel stack (chimney) about 10 inches too tall. So they brought out the same crew shown in your pic to lower the foundation by that amount. They used hammers and homemade rebar chisels to chip away at it until it was the right height. No pneumatic jackhammers or even heavy sledge hammers. Just tiny handheld hammers and junk chisels. Took ‘em a couple of weeks to fix the problem, but they sure employed a lot of guys.
While I was there, the commies were always extolling the virtues of communism and how there “was no unemployment in China.”
That stint made me a life-long small government conservative.
POF
Construction jobs in this country are highly mechanized and very limited in labor intensification. It will take trillions of dollars worth of construction projects to make a significant impact on unemployment numbers.
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