Word: plante
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Some forms of renewable energy already compete with the cheapest coal- powered generators. Wind turbines produce electricity in California for between 4.5 cents and 4.8 cents per KW-H, roughly the same as the cost of power from a coal-fired plant. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Colorado believes that a new generation of gearless wind turbines will improve efficiency and lower the cost to 3.5 cents per KW-H by the end of the decade. Christopher Flavin, co-author of Power Surge, a Worldwatch Institute book, says that within the next year India will be installing...
...choreographer of this production miracle, which stretches from the foothills of the Alleghenies to the high plains of the West, combined a bit of capitalism with salubrious weather. Like their corporate brethren, farmers have learned and leaned. It took only 600,000 farmers to plant, nurture and collect most of this crop, compared with more than 1 million only 20 years ago. These survivors, almost all of them educated landowners plugged in by computers to the latest technologies of soil, fertilizers and cultivation, were ready and waiting. The terrible floods of last year had left many of them convinced that...
...weather profile this season was near perfect. After the thaw there were dry, mild days so the farmers could plant almost without interruption, most of them using the no-till method, where the seeds were drilled or chiseled into matted stubble left from the year before; this residue forms a weed-retardant layer and a sponge for moisture. The right rains came at the right time. Only in isolated corners of the country were there scorching winds or floods...
...other companies, the economics work out. Overtime is expensive, of course; many autoworkers are earning $65,000 to $70,000 a year, and electricians on plant-maintenance crews working seven-day weeks can push their take above $100,000. But the combined wage, fringe benefit and training costs of hiring new workers would be more expensive still. Consequently, GM has done no significant hiring since 1986, once more pushing to an extreme a common trend. Since the recovery from the last recession began in March 1991, the U.S. economy has created almost 6 million new jobs, but in a sense...
Again, GM's strategy is typical of the auto industry and American companies generally. At the Ford Motor plant in St. Louis, Missouri, nearly 3,400 full- time employees make around $57,000 a year thanks to overtime pay. But the plant also uses 200 temporary employees who do essentially the same jobs but make only $20,000 annually because they work only two or three days a week. Economywide, the number of temps in the labor force has more than doubled in the past decade. Says Roach: "The ((job-creating)) leader in this recovery...