Ask the Best and Brightest: Whither NUMMI?

"After all, GM has announced its intention to shut down its Shreveport, LA, plants by 2012. Which means an end to Colorado production there, and a giant sucking sound where GM’s small truck offering used to be." Well, no. The next generation Colorado will be built in Brazil.

first off you cannot build a new refiniery in CA without 50000 permits which is why no one has built one in 20 yeras which is why that refinery is still there. CA runs its own fuel blends so it refines its own fuel. SO that refinery will be there forever. Rocket engines... are used for uh rockets. the labor cost of a rocket is not as big a percentage as it is in a car. And of the 2 examples you have put up you forgot to mention all the ones who have closed because of CA ridiculous workmans comp, super high minimum wage, and other rules. They used to build planes, in socal for boeing and thats gone to the southern states. In fact when I was in high school I worked in a hewlett packard plant in compton. that was only 10 years ago, and that was moved to mexico for cheaper labor as well, and it was mostly because of the workmands comp and healthcare costs. Also regarding the land nummi is on , it is right by the freeway. If you have ever been to fremont you will know that there is tons of open land there. So I am not sure how much interest there is to rezone and develop that land especially since several freeways are right next to it and railroad tracks. IF anything closing nummi would probably greatly heart the east bay area's economy, as i'm sure a lot of people are employed by nummi or surrounding suppliers/ companies . Not everyone up here works in tech. CA is a very expensive place to run any sort of business. Unless that business is very high margin, it just isn't worth doing anything here if it requires a lot of labor. Hell I work here, and I work in software engineering, which is probably one of the least labor intensive jobs around per $ in revenue. And even some of that is leaving. I'm convinced CA is going done for. Our state is broke, our state govt is retarded, and they have taxed everyone including business to death to provide ridiculous workers to govt workers and 150 million dollar high schools in LA.

The first 15 of those 20 years Oil companies were shutting down refineries because they were uneconomic so it didn't really matter if you needed no permits or a million. I doubt Boeing pays minimum wage to a lot of its workers besides Cali is an expensve state to live in so a low minimum wage just means nobody earns minimum wage. "Also regarding the land nummi is on , it is right by the freeway. If you have ever been to fremont you will know that there is tons of open land there. So I am not sure how much interest there is to rezone and develop that land especially since several freeways are right next to it and railroad tracks." So it is next to several feeways and a railroad and you claim that it is wothless. I feel like i have taken the bait. "Hell I work here, and I work in software engineering, which is probably one of the least labor intensive jobs around per $ in revenue. And even some of that is leaving." I did as software is mostly labor

Makes me wonder if the Canadian equivalent (CAMI), shared between GM and Suzuki will survive. I guess it depends on a couple of new Gm models as Suzuki no longer manufactures there. (I still think Suzuki should bring their Kei cars here for urban markets.)