Look
here to read the Buffalo News and their Feb 21, 2007 article on the 8 Clipper turbines which are going into the defunct Bethlehem Steel slag dump in Lackawanna, just west of downtown Buffalo. The blades are made in Brazil, the towers are from Aerisyn in
Chattanooga , and the generation components are from
Clipper Wind , a new US wind turbine company
Does it really make sense for the Cleveland Foundation and the Cuyahoga County Commissioners to put $800,000.00 of taxpayer's money into studying whether or not it is feasible and commercially practical to put 40 million dollars of wind turbines in Lake Erie sometime in the distant future? Or, would it be less risky and more expedient for that $800,000.00 to be split into numerous smaller “studies” - of whether or not it was practical and commercially feasible to jump start any number of wind turbine component manufacturing businesses? Would study and subsidy of a wind turbine tower manufacturing facility next to Mital in the Cuyahoga Valley put Friday paychecks in the hands of Cuyahoga citizens before any benefit can be derived from wind turbines on Lake Erie? Would study and subsidy for the construction of a turbine blade manufacturing plant put Friday paychecks in the hands of Cuyahoga citizens before any benefit can be derived from wind turbines on Lake Erie? Or asking this another way, how will imported turbines out on Lake Erie put a Friday paycheck in the hands of Cuyahoga citizens? If you think that wind turbines out on Lake Erie will give Cleveland a catalytic image uplift, then I have to ask: does Cleveland need an image uplift or manufacturing jobs?
If your salary were almost $400,000.00 annually, would you be more concerned with Cleveland’s Image or your Friday pay check?