Jobs….. Where they Gone to?

 

Headed down the road the other day and passed some blade trucks and there were some pulling off the road.  So rather then waiting for them, I paused and took some pictures of them.  The trucks they haul these big blades on are amazing.

Look at the rear wheels on the trailer, they are steerable.  The driver in the cab has a joy stick to turn the rear trailer wheels.  Used to be someone in the pilot car would jump out and steer the wheels.  Long load….. over 90 feet long.

While that set of blades was turning off the Interstate this set was parked on another highway.  They are from a different factory going to another hot air farm.

On down the road the first group goes.  On to the farm road and up the hill to the ridge where they will be planted.

There are times this components are shipped by rail.  There are specialized cars for hauling them by rail because of their length and other pieces because of their weight.

 

Besides the hot air fans there are other bits and pieces necessary to get things moved around.  These huge transformers are super heavy.  One guy said there were 92 tires on the truck that hauled it.  A whole bunch of weight.

Then there all the new high power transmission lines necessary to haul it to the big city.

The

The fans, they stretch out for miles across the prairie.  First group was about 120, next group about 90 and the new group over 200. 

The prairie is becoming cluttered.  It was bad enough with houses, out buildings, fences then utility lines.  Now it is monster size stuff popping up.

 

Watching all this involves lots of people, from the manufacture of electrical parts and the mounting structures to the land siteing. 

So why is there such a problem with high unemployment.  This government money was supposed to take care of the problem.  What am I missing?

One thing, most of these things are foreign made or owned by companies based out side of the US.

Mitsubishi, Siemens, Vestas and GE are the big names for manufacturing these things.  They are made overseas or owned by off shore companies.  Side note…. The Obama people are complaining about Romney’s money being off shore.  Guess where our tax money is going.

Electricity generated by these windmills cost about .04cents compared to about .01cents for coal generated electricity.  When the tax credits for the windmills is dropped they will sit on the prairie collecting dust because of the expense.  The government mandate requires that utilities use 10% green energy, IE wind power being alleged green energy.  When the utilities meet their 10% they discontinue wind power.

So I look at the windmills and wonder why the jobs aren’t there?

They government can mess things up but have a hell of a time fixing things because of the politics of reelection and other stuff.

Just wish we would stop going to the government to fix little things.  We pull ourselves out of recessions when left alone and the government stays out of the way and uses sensible regulations that favor no one.

I hope the windmills become an icon of how boneheaded we become when it comes to electing out political leaders.