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The day before Halloween the Wall Street Journal trumpeted news that a Chinese firm will be the exclusive supplier to one of the largest wind-farm developments in the United States.
Trick or treat! And when did “business leaders” become an oxymoron?
Also, the developer of the project will be seeking U.S. taxpayer assistance!
Just like all the other overpaid, risk-averse captains of industry who used to espouse free markets and the invisible hand.
Are we nuts? We finally find something America could conceivably make to offset the collapse of our car industry and government intrusion into the marketplace and this opportunity is being outsourced, too?
If American firms can’t competitively build clean energy projects, either, this country is doomed.
The 36,000-acre West Texas development announced it would purchase 240 2.5-megawatt wind turbines from Shenyang Power Group, a five-month-old alliance with operations in China.
President Obama made it a priority to expand U.S. production of clean renewable energy, which logic suggested had the potential to create good-paying manufacturing jobs.
Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Executive Director Scott Paul submitted a letter to Obama emphasizing another lost opportunity for domestic U.S. manufacturing.
In part, his letter notes:
“I am deeply concerned that if not done properly, our efforts to rejuvenate our manufacturing base in this country could be unseated by subsidized imports from countries seeking to capitalize on new demand for clean energy products in the United States, such as wind turbines and solar panels.
“I was shocked to learn of the massive 36,000-acre West Texas wind farm development that will rely solely on wind turbines manufactured in China.
“The developer will be seeking federal tax credits and support from the stimulus package.
“According to an Oct. 30, 2009, article in the Wall Street Journal, ‘The project should create 2,800 jobs – of which 15 percent would be in the U.S. The rest would flow to China, where Shenyang employs 800 people.’
“Simply put, U.S. producers can and should be building the same turbines as the Chinese firm. The WSJ cites Elizabeth Salerno, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association, who says that in the first three quarters of 2009, there were 33 percent fewer announcements of U.S. turbine-factory expansions than in the comparable period of 2008.
“In this case, it means another lost opportunity to revitalize U.S. manufacturing.”
So I was already on fire about Chinese windmills when I was further inflamed by Heidi Connor’s cool program on Kitty Litter king Ed Lowe, the white-bearded Kenny Rogers clone who looked dapper in overalls with an ascot and a hat cocked at a jaunty angle.
He used to live near my grandparents in Cassopolis and while I can’t say I knew him, I periodically encountered him in the flesh signing his book – “John, Go For It!” he wrote in mine in 1987 – or at the pickle barrel golf outing at Big Rock Valley with green dill club heads.
We even went to Jones when it was back during high school.
Where did visionaries like Ed who made America great go and why does it seem like all the corporations today are populated only by greedy, short-sighted mopes who don’t care when they create carnage?
There’s nothing wrong with making money, which Lowe proved by inspiring a billion-dollar industry selling bags of clay and amassing a personal fortune into the hundreds of millions.
Yet he also had the capacity to care about his employees and his environment and greenly tapped his fortune to the tune of $17 million to develop a post-clay material.
Heidi presented the entrepreneur warts and all.
Musical hats? Pre-packaged firewood? If not every idea flew as high Kitty Litter, he didn’t act like a shameless Wall Street tool and run to taxpayers for a handout.
Can a square peg like Ed Lowe even develop today? He’d be pumped full of Ritalin for ADD and his genius might be snuffed in the name of conformity.
Thinking about Ed Lowe brought another name to mind.
Whatever happened to Lee Iacocca, the original bringer of Chrysler back from its deathbed?
Turns out Iacocca has written what sounds like an eerily timely book, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” He’s as “Fed Upton” as me with the posturing career politician crowd of status-quo defending Demopublicans and Republicrats.
If they’re not careful they’re going to be Whigs and the Tea Party will finish what Ross Perot threatened a generation ago.
Here’s vintage unvarnished Iacocca (he’s 82 now, by the way):
Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder!
We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car.
But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when politicians say, ‘Stay the course…’
Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw all the bums out!
You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.
The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs.
While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of the America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?
I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have. The Biggest C is Crisis! (Iacocca elaborates on nine Cs of leadership, with crisis first.)
Leaders are made, not born.
Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On Sept. 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a mess, so here’s where we stand.
We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving.
Obama is running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.
Gas prices are skyrocketing and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy.
Our borders are like sieves.
The middle class is being squeezed every which way.
These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: Where have all the leaders gone? Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point. Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo.
We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.
Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane or demanding accountability for the decisions made in the crucial hours after the storm.
Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing.
Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when The Big Three referred to Japanese car companies?
How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt or solving the energy crisis or managing the health care problem.
The silence is deafening.
But these are the crises eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.
What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on NBC or CNN will call them a name?
Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?
Had Enough? Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here.
I’m trying to light a fire.
I’m speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America.
In my lifetime, I’ve had the privilege of living through some of America’s greatest moments.
I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises: The Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play.
Amen, Lee. I feel like John Quixote, tilting at Chinese windmills, but I’m in good company with Iacocca and Lowe.
John Eby is Daily News managing editor. E-mail him at john.eby @leaderpub.com.
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Finally somebody in the press actually see’s what the real problem is.
We don’t build stuff, We buy stuff.
in fact we no longer build stuff that our very lives depend on.
We were sold on were not patriotic if We protected our
Manufacturing base, against the whims of greed of Wall street,
and the Insurance companies.
We were praised for not doing so with the Songs of the Evil unions,
and Americanisms.
the came for the Electronics Industry, and nobody cared,
then they came for steel, while everyone danced.
then they wanted the machine tool industry, while We played
they then went after the Rust belt, and we felt So what.
we began to flip everybody elses Hamburgers, while
laying off the Blue Collar workers,
we left the service economy for the Consumer Society
and layed off middle management, and Some actually cared.
We went after Your job, then You cared.
in our own selfishness we forgot this was supposed to be a Nation
“of the People, for the people, by the People” and thought only
of ourselves.
which was Ironic, as it was the Generations of Baby Bloomers, whom were afforded
the greatest living standard, and opportunities of any of our generations that
wrought this upon us, the pathway to our doom,
why we cannot even supply the weapons of war we fight for the Oil Companies.