I was just thinking about the fact that the steel industry here in Cleveland has been declining (okay dying) for decades, well, we do call ourselves a "rust-belt city, don't we....
.....and I was thinking about our possible future in terms of wind tower, turbine, blade, turbine housings, etc. manufacturing.
Okay... Just what did the "founding fathers" (and "founding mothers") have to do to get "steel" here in the first place?
"Take one iron ore mountain in Upper Peninsula Michigan, stir with massive earth moving machines, transform into little pellets (for ease of transportation) drop into a fleet of massive ships designed expressly for handling these little pellets, unload them from the ore freighters with specialized equipment (read Hulett Unloaders) load them into rail cars (that just happen to have a track that leads to the steel mill)..."
...repeat most of the above with both coal and limestone.
"Blend at 2000-3000 degrees in blast furnace (after Mr. Bessemer invented it), then pour it out into a processing facility that transforms the molten metal into I-beams, rolls of sheet steel, and a whole collection of other products." (cooling c/o the Cuyahoga River)
That is quite a recipe.
I then wonder, what might our current generation of "founding fathers & mothers" might be willing to do to re-vitalize our "rust-belt" economy by promoting, endorsing, inventing, designing, investing in, potential sustainable economic industries such as wind, solar, fuel cells, hydrogen, biofuels, etc....
Exhibit "A", the steel example, would probably be a multi-billion investment in today's dollars.
Do we currently have anyone bold enough to even be considering such investment here in Cleveland?
....and, if not here, where will these folks be taking their moneys for these sort of investments? Do they all have to go to China? Can't we manage to get at least a couple of them to promot, endorse, invent, design, invest, here?
Who do we ask?
Who do we need to "network" with?
Who do we need to have conversations with?
Who did Marcus A. Hanna talk with when he wanted to start Hanna mining?
Who did the founders of Cleveland-Cliffs take to lunch?
Who were the early steel pioneers who saw that Cleveland would make a great place to open a steel plant?
Who were the railroad people who "arranged" to get the land in the flats between Whiskey Island and the steel mills?
...and how do we get their current incarnations "to the table" (or want to take each other to the table) to discuss our renewable energy future?
Needless, I hope this generates some discussion/conversation... ...and maybe, if we all are really lucky, "the" conversation.
Wistful Bill