They experienced a sharp decline due to obsolete plants and the lure of cheaper wages in the South.

One corner of the ground floor housed an obsolete cold-storage plant, that was still in use, but seldom opened.

There was nothing to distinguish an obsolete nuclear plant from, say, an abandoned button factory.

These obsolete plants are worn out and are vast polluters.

However, environmental regulation was only one of the reasons for the closures, for many firms which closed were the older inefficient or obsolete plants (Harris, 1981).

G.M. is currently in the process of closing 11 mostly obsolete plants and idling 30,000 workers.

"If you shut down an obsolete plant, should you automatically get carbon credits?"

They could not decide what to do about the obsolete industrial plants from the era of the Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu.

In the near term, cutting subsidies for food and rent, closing obsolete plants and laying off redundant workers could lower living standards.

With much of Spain's industrial plant obsolete and inefficient, modernization required reduced protectionism, factory closings and a surge of unemployment.