Auto industry refugees head to wind power

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jk4797qdPqypGFFcNuzqZEmid8AwD981KN780

Auto industry refugees head to wind power

By DAVID MERCER

CHICAGO (AP) — Pete Ostrander and the manufacturer he works for took a hard look at the auto industry four years ago, and neither liked what they saw.

Automakers were pushing vendors like Merrill Technologies Group, where Ostrander works, to cut costs and, with the economic environment in Detroit worsening by the day, the company retooled itself as a supplier to what it believed was an industry with better prospects.

Ostrander, standing in a display booth at one of the wind industry's biggest gatherings, was not alone.

Merrill is among dozens of companies at the American Wind Energy Association conference in Chicago — which ends Thursday — that have their traded auto-related business for a niche in wind-power.

…

[phantom power]

1. My CEO and several co-workers are at that conference.

Big pow wow.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Shouldn't that be

a big power pow wow?

[phantom power]

3. time will tell!

[diane in sf]

4. A great solution to several interrelated problems, now let's use the wind to power the cars