Posted on 03/21/2012 6:44:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Yes, you read that correctly. Three years after committing tens of billions of dollars in subsidies to green-energy firms, including massive amounts of subsidies to solar-panel firms like Solyndra, the Obama administration proclaims themselves shocked, shocked! that China subsidizes the production of solar panels in their own country:
The U.S. Commerce Department announced tariffs on Chinese-made solar panels on Tuesday that it said had benefited from unfair subsidies by Beijing.
The preliminary ruling came in response to a complaint from SolarWorld Industries America, a U.S. manufacturer that is a subsidiary of Germany’s SolarWorld. The tariffs were lower than many analysts had predicted, however, boosting shares of Chinese solar-panel makers in Tuesday’s trading….
“Today’s announcement affirms what U.S. manufacturers have long known: Chinese manufacturers have received unfair and [World Trade Organization]-illegal subsidies,” Steve Ostrenga, CEO of Wisconsin’s Helios Solar Works, said in a statement.
But many others say the complaint is counter-productive. Jigar Shah, president of the industry group Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, said in a statement that tariffs on Chinese panels would slow the growth of solar and cost the industry jobs in the U.S., for example in installation.
Shah, as CNN notes in the report, has since changed his position a little in support of the lower-than-expected tariffs, but the complaint is still wildly hypocritical. The US government has spent billions of dollars on solar subsidies over the last several decades, and at least a few billion out of Obama’s Porkulus bill over the last three years. Solyndra sank over a half-billion dollars in solar subsidies in its bankruptcy alone.
Actually, that might be the reason for the Obama administration’s action with these tariffs — as political cover for the collapse of Solyndra. When Solyndra applied for those subsidies through the Loan Guarantee Program, questions were raised about Solyndra’s ability to compete against Chinese competition in the market; the DoE ignored those concerns, and we ended up taking a $535 million bath. Obama will now argue that the bankruptcy got caused by unfair competition, even though (a) Obama used subsidies in exactly the same manner he accuses China of doing and for the same purpose, and (b) that still doesn’t change the fact that the DoE knew that Solyndra couldn’t compete in the marketplace even with the subsidies and tossed over a half-billion dollars in taxpayer money down the drain anyway.
Steve McGough at Radio Vice Online wonders if the White House choked on their words:
The federal government has a website listing tax credits, rebates and savings for all types of equipment including stuff like solar water heaters, solar space heating and solar pool water heating just to name a few.
There is a federal tax credit in place that will cover 30 percent of the cost of a solar energy system, up to $500 per .5 KW of power capacity. The credit expires Dec. 31, 2016 … so you have some time. Is the Obama administration really going to claim they have not been subsidizing this industry?
What the Obama administration did here is increase the cost of solar panels for consumers, making an already difficult return-on-investment decision even more hard to justify. Congratulations.
For another example of U.S. government subsidies for the U.S. solar energy industry, follow President Obama today to Nevada, where he’ll be visiting a solar farm that has five full-time employees, and received “$42 million in federal-government tax credits and $12 million in tax-rebate commitments from the state of Nevada.”
Ah, yes — that would be Sempra:
President Obama will tout investments in “renewable” energy Wednesday at the local Copper Mountain Solar 1 plant, although the plant has only five full-time employees.
The plant, owned by San Diego-based energy company Sempra, was built in late 2010 at a cost of $141 million. Funding included $42 million in federal-government tax credits and $12 million in tax-rebate commitments from the state of Nevada.
Construction of the plant involved over 300 part-time jobs, but currently only five full-time employees operate the plant, a Sempra spokeswoman confirmed. That comes out to $10.8 million in tax-dollar subsidies per employee.
And we’re complaining about China’s subsidies? That calls for a Captain Louis Renault award, which is most propitious timing, as movie theaters across the country will show Casablanca tonight for a one-time-only event:
Will the last hypocrite close the door.
“Stopped clock”.
Gotta start somewhere. What we’re doing now ain’t working.
America first.
Isn’t the ultimate idea to reduce the use of carbon-based energy by transitioning to things like solar panels? If that’s the case, why does it matter where the solar panels come from?
Oh, I see -— the source has to be Obama sycophants, campaign donors and unions.
It has become obvious that this President has only taken Alinsky and Marxist classes. Sheesh, what an ignoramus.
So the “one country - one vote” rule used by UN, WTO, and IMF does always lead to a ‘fair’ multinational result? I’m shocked - I thought Americans were ‘bad’ and the rest of the world was ‘good’.
Get us out of WTO, IMF, UN, and any treaty or organization which subjects US sovereignty to a multinational body. Since we are the most productive, we have the most. Since we have the most, others will always want what we have. And among those who want what we have there will always be some (many?) who will use whatever means necessary to get what they want.
The duty of OUR government is to protect US interests, not spread our produced wealth to the non-productive, dysfunctional parts of the world.
Fat cat Cronyism as the driving force behind opening a trade war with our largest trade partner is disgusting.
Semi-honest pols, such as Paul Ryan should capitalize on this and attack Obama as a fat cat crony capitalist. It is a dereliction of duty and acquiescence through omission of resistance to do otherwise.
un-freaking-believable. These people don’t discriminate...they insult everyone. Hope they don’t go back to China with their hand out..
We do not have a trade “partnership” with China.
We have an abusive relationship.
Time to call the crisis center.
Just another way for the government to grab money. It sure isn’t helping the consumer or the panel industry here....which is getting subsidies (OUR MONEY) already.
There isn’t a single US based manufacturer of Solar equipment that can compete globally.
OUt of the thousands of existing trade disputes, legal actions, etc ongoing with US/Chinese import/export, the only significant one Obama takes on is the one that his campaign donor bundlers are the only ones to benefit.
It’s an easy newsbite.
This is BS; beyond stupid.
We disagree on the very fundamentals.
China is protectionist.
America is ... naive.
That’s not a situation which is sustainable.
China is killing Obama’s green job redistribution SCAM and this must be fixed. LOL
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