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Obama Blocks Chinese Wind Farms In Oregon Over National Security
Hugh Pickens writes "Reuters reports that President Barack Obama has invoked a little-used law to block a privately owned Chinese company from building wind turbines close to a Navy military site in Oregon due to national security concerns. 'There is credible evidence that leads me to believe' that Ralls Corp, Sany Group and the two Sany Group executives who own Ralls 'might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,' said Obama in issuing his decision. The military uses the Oregon naval facility to test unmanned drones and the EA-18G 'Growler.' The electronic warfare aircraft accompanies US fighter bombers on missions and protectively jams enemy radar, destroying them with missiles along the way. At the Oregon site, the planes fly as low as 60 m and at almost 480 km/h. The administration would not say what risks the wind farm purchases presented but the Treasury Department said the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, known as CFIUS, made its recommendation to Obama after receiving an analysis of the potential threats from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The last time a president used the law to block a transaction was in 1990, when George H.W. Bush voided the sale of an aerospace company, Mamco Manufacturing, to a Chinese agency."
Most computers and computer components sold in the U.S. are manufactured in China now. Just wanted to let you know, Mr. President, in case you missed it.
I know, I know "free market" and all that, sir. But is it really a free market if the country doing all the manufacturing isn't free?
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
competition with china is a huge political issue in the midwest. it is likely this is about scoring pre-election political points.
Isn't that how people tend to pronounce Sony in certain dialects of the US-English language variant?
Now I don't know if there is ulterior motives, but if it was an American company they would probably do the same thing. China is not the issue. The concern is that wind farms effectively create radar blind spots. There is ongoing research attempting to solve this issue. It has happened a lot with British military bases.
The fact is that you can't have three big dogs in the same room, and not have each one want to be the top dog. USA, China and Russia are going to duke it out for who's top dog.
That being said, it's foolish that we allow so many Chinese firms to make vital parts of our infrastructure. The solution there won't be as easy as invoking a little-known law.
USA elects Don Quixote for president!
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
What's the legal framework for this, exactly?
AFAIK, the laws of buying and selling and property registration (land for the wind farm) are all state laws, none federal.
Or are they bringing this under interstate commerce?
Anyway, isn't this banned under WTO regs? Don't you have to give international companies the same treatment as national companies? Sounds like the kind of thing the US Trade Representative would complain about if China were to ban a US company's investment for nebulous "national security" reasons.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
If you're testing ECM you probably don't want someone affiliated with a foreign power putting up a bunch of tall towers in the vicinity.
Maybe it's bullshit, but it's a great excuse.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Do British bases have Chinese wind farms next door as opposed to other countries wind farms?
...in a global scale, not here and there (what about computer parts, iphones even).
China plays the game with very different cards.
It's bad enough that foreign interests have taken up much of our manufacturing capability, but we certainly don't need them buying up our power generation capability. Every country should produce its own power. That's a mater of national security.
Obama has invoked a little-used law to block a privately owned Chinese company from building wind turbines close to a Navy military site in Oregon due to national security concerns.
Surely he's just tilting at windmills.
It could simply be that this is an attempt to shore up US-based 'green' industries by blocking a Chinese competitor. Those industries are one of the few groups that went for Obama in 2008 (campaign contributions), that he's actually treated well. Most of the rest--blacks, Hispanics, young adults--he had ignored.
From Section. 8.
"The Congress shall have Power To ... provide for the common Defence" and later on "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations". This is clearly both.The president is complying with an enacted law providing for the common defense by attemption to prevent a foreign nation from putting an ECM suite next to a test range, which is also a law which regulates commerce with foreign nations.
Except that the payments in have been raided for entitlement programs for the "wealth creators" by giving them a tax break that wasn't paid for.
Anybody hear anything about any launch codes?
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
Getting "tough on China" is a popular meme among the huddled masses.
This is all about saying some things that have wide appeal to voters, and taking some minor, token actions to create the illusion of "walking the walk."
Think about it. It appeals to the voters who have this false notion that Romney is an out-sorcerer of jobs to China, and it also appeals to those who have lost their jobs and believe it is because of China.
It all translates to votes.
There's been a lot of controversy over the attempted Chinese purchase of Nexen, a Canadian Petroleum company.
There are many concerns about Chinese companies' safety records, as well as the issues of foreign ownership of companies which exploit local natural resources (oddly, Canada seems to have less issue with US ownership of said companies).
A nuclear chihuahua? That's the most dangerous kind!
They're packed to the rafters with technology stuff from China.
And I guess most US households are, as well.
Although, back in the 80's, when Japan bashing was all the rage, I don't remember that the US ever accused Japan of military spying. Just good old industrial spying, which every county in the world does, more or less.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Therefore, he's entitled to it. Put it this way: Do you own a home or car? Did you pay it up in full? If yes, then sure, you ARE entitled to it (except with homes nobody TRULY owns them in the USA afaik - all you have is a title that makes you have to pay taxes on what you supposedly "own" (prima fascia title only). Don't pay it for 3-4 quarters, see what happens (they take it)). It's all a HUGE fucking "scam", & always has been.
"Red Chinese" is kind of a silly term to use these days. When I was a kid, that was how you differentiated the Communist government on the mainland (which we didn't recognize) from the Nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan (which we no longer recognize but still support militarily!). And although, technically, the mainlanders are still comies and still at war with the Taiwanese, the reality is that the Chinese Communist Party is the biggest capitalist entity on the planet, And they got there, in part, by collaborating with Taiwanese business.
If the U.S. and China ever fight another war, it won't be over whether Mark and Mao are kewler than Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson. It'll be over access to natural resources.
Lots of things are considered acceptable and are still wrong
[Citation needed]
Not sure about citations, but here's a short list of examples.
- Killing people with motor vehicles because you were drunk/texting/gabbing on the phone/etc.
- Lying to get elected.
- Stealing pension money.
- Screwing up royally and ruining people's lives and then getting bailed out and paid an enormous bonus.
- Ruining peoples lives over a download while screaming about the poor artists when you do everything you can to get out of paying those artists yourself.
- Telling the general populace to tighten their belts, while you get a huge pension after only six years in office.
- Telling the aging population that they will have to wait an additional 5 years to collect their pension, when you don't have to, even though you have so much money you don't even need it.
- Letting corporations write laws.
- Letting corporations run the country.
- Doing something wrong, then punishing the person who points it out, instead of the one doing wrong (WikiLeaks, etc.)
I could go on.
They can be free as they want but we still call the shots in our country; they can call the shots in theirs own country. This is a national security issue with no ifs, ands or buts. Obama has done plenty of wrong things (Jimmy Carter must be sighing in relief) but this was a good, solid decision by the Obama administration. Kudos to Bammy ; )
Why pretend we have a free global market? This goes for all countries. They all sit around signing global free trade and open investment, but it is clear no country is really willing to deal with true global free trade. They're not willing to pay the true price of it.
Is there a soul on this planet who actually thinks Obama is concerned with national security in terms of this Wind Farm?
Let's not even get into Buy America, Stimulus packages...
Just don't sign free-trade deals if you really don't want free trade. It's not the end of the world, if nations/regions have their own companies. If anything, at least its a bit of global redundancy.
Disclaimer: I think global free trade should be illegal as it applies different rules to different people. American workers have to obey a minimum wage which Chinese workers do not.
Occam's razor indeed.
You're saying that:
A large conglomeration of green energy companies wanted to block competitors so they hired a bunch of lawyers who looked through arcane lawbooks and found a little used law that said they could block their competitor by getting the president to make a personal declaration against it
is more likely than:
Paranoid US security forces were more than a bit nervous when they discovered that the big towers going up near their top secret testing location were owned by a nation which is involved in numerous cases of industrial and military espionage.
Hate to say it, but the official version sounds more plausible.
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
and it started long before the 50's. Great powers have always been vying for dominance either in cold wars or hot. There has never been non-adversarial relationships between them, and it will never stop until the last government in the world stops trying to press an advantage (and that will never happen since if you're the only one to press the advantage you're guaranteed to win, and no one else is willing to get left behind)
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Since he was solely responsible for this prevention AND it making public news, I will vote for this wonderful man who, single-handedly, removed third party terrorism potential from American soil.
It's a good thing, too, because no one has ever seen or heard of those drones before, whose specifications aren't available online. Surely another country couldn't make their own. Thanks, O'Bama, oh savior of American Freedom!
*gag*
That's what they want you to think.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Then you clearly don't understand Occam's Razor in the slightest.
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!