Welcome Green Tire Systems!

According to the MDC Agenda for this Friday, July 30, 2010, representatives of Green Tire Systems are going to make a presentation to the MDC board.

So, who is Green Tire Systems? Let's check out a June 10, 2010 story in the Niagra-Gazette:

NIAGARA FALLS -- An international tire-recycling operation is considering opening its first U.S. factory here.

Green Tire Systems LLC has operated tire recycling factories in China and Taiwan the past decade. The owners of a patented process for reducing tires to original elements -- oil, carbon black, steel and gases -- established a North American division this past January and is scoping out factory sites around the United States.

According to the above news story, Green Tire Systems Economic Development Application and Green Tire Systems Economic Development Project Summary, (filed with the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency), they are seeking the normal array of tax breaks, abatements and financing from the NCDIA for the promise of $18 million in capital improvements and 50 jobs.

I do have to hand it to the local paper for printing the obvious goal (at least to us ED watchers) of the Green Tire pitch men:

Green Tire is fishing for best offers of incentives to open its first U.S. factory; it has been in discussion with economic development agents in Odessa, Texas, while also talking with NCIDA, Plum said.

"It's not a race between cities, we're just looking for the right opportunity and the right place" to launch U.S. operations, he hastened to add.

From another report, the company could be planning to operate at both sites, and they are just pitting the offers against each other for the "Right" to be the first facility and have each community make ever increasing comparable offers:

Plum said Green Tire is talking to officials in Odessa, Texas, about opening another plant there. It would be able to handle up to 40,000 tons of tires a year, twice the planned capacity of the Niagara Falls plant.

This is like the daughter of the flower shop owner having two boys compete for her affections by buying her ever more expensive flowers for the right to take her to Home Coming this fall while the "loser" gets to take her to the Prom in the spring.

So why is Green Tire Systems coming to the MDC when by all reports they are making an application to the ODC? Do you think it is about the money in the bank?

Personally, I like the concept of the company, if the process is all it is advertised to be, I just don't know why our local tax dollars have to support them setting up shop here. Say what you will, this venture is a gamble. There are environmental permits to obtain and their process has only recently scaled up in Taiwan and China. Then there is the matter of another tire recycling venture that is already probing the Economic Waters of Odessa.

If you're curious, here's the principal investor in Green Tire Systems.