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Court Rules That Imported Solar Panels Are Bad For US Manufacturing (theverge.com)
The International Trade Commission has ruled that American companies are being hurt by cheap solar panels from overseas, providing an opportunity for President Donald Trump to tax imports from countries like China. The Verge reports: Today's unanimous decision ruled that the companies SolarWorld Americans and Suniva were struggling financially not because of their own poor management, but because they couldn't compete with cheap panels from countries like China, Mexico, and South Korea. Suniva is now suggesting import duties of 40 cents a watt for solar cells, and a floor price of 78 cents a watt for panels. (Right now, the average floor price, worldwide, for panels is about 32 cents.) The Solar Energy Industries Association warned that implementing these suggestions could end up doubling the price of solar, thus destroying demand and causing Americans to lose their jobs.
IN the post-WWII era trade liberalization has been about creating economic interdependence as jobs or wealth. It was believed that increasing economic interdependence would reduce the likelihood of hostility between countries joined in a liberal and relatively open trade pact. But there are also significant benefits to any market, providing it is sufficiently mature and robust, being able to sell easily outside its borders, and certainly easing of trade restrictions is very good for consumers. The lesson of protectionism in the 18th and 19th century was that it didn't ultimately improve domestic economies, it tended to favor industrial and business indolence and inefficiency, as domestic manufacturers, protected from competition, ultimately served consumers poorly. Steel tariffs which protected domestic steel industries increased costs all the way down the line.
It's a lot different for developing economies, where local industry may need protection for some time, but one can hardly use that excuse for countries industrialized as long as the US. If what Trump and his supporters say is true, then the US has an incredibly weak, almost developing world-like economy, and I think we all know that's not true.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
There are FAR more people employed in the sale and instillation of solar panel than there are in manufacturing. Raising the price of panels will kill those jobs.
But how many of those jobs are held by US citizens or holders of work visas and how many are "undocumented" aliens?
Not saying the latter's jobs don't matter. AM saying that, as far as jobs for the US citizen voters who elected Trump on the promise of more jobs for US citizens (and others with legal work status), job losses for that group don't count. So your argument won't convince them.
Also AM saying that raising the prices can retard other parts of the economy, so it's not that simple.
(Also saying I was planning to buy a couple pallets of solar panels now that they were down into the $0.30/W range - providing enough generation to make my retirement home grid-independent - and this might foul that up. Sigh. It will be interesting to see how it works out.)
"The International Trade Commission" is a US group, it has no international mandate.
Neither does the US presidency, judiciary, congress, or the raft of federal agencies, of which this is one. Per wikipedia:
Saying "it has no international mandate" may make it SOUND like it's some private group, rather than a fully functional and authorized part of the government. But it doesn't make it any less legitimate than any other part of the government.
International relations are an anarchy. Each sovereign country's governmental components don't require any "mandate" from any outside-the-country persons, groups, or governments to be as legitimate as any other governmental component.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
The gov't has been penalizing the import of cheap foreign solar panels since at least 2011. Trump is just more of the same old BS...
Free electricity from sunshine negatively impacts gov't tax revenues, therefore it is against gov't's interests to allow solar panels to be easy to obtain and install for cheap. We've had this technology for decades, yet you STILL can not walk into a Walmart or Home Depot today and load your pickup truck with solar panels (overpriced puny toy panels don't count). Yet you can pick up a noisy and expensive to operate gasoline powered generator at ANY of those big box stores quite easily...
I jumped through all the paperwork and bureaucracy back in 2010 to have 5KW of solar installed on my house. Without an electric bill to worry about paying every month, I decided to quit my full-time day job and haven't had to pay significant income taxes ever since. Without driving around to work every day, I also don't pay nearly as much road (fuel) taxes either.
If everyone managed to jump off the grid tomorrow, the gov't would be up a creek without a paddle due to all the tax revenues drying up. You can bet they aren't going to let that happen. So the war against cheap solar panels continues...
Exactly, I've been recently looking into buying another 10+kw for my solar system, especially now that solar panels have fallen below 20cents/w. I'm squeaking by now on 2.5kw, but moar is always better, plus it will give me full power in low light conditions, ie, winter.
China also demands 51% ownership of anything on its soil. Imagine if the US demanded you had reps from the NSA, DHS, DEA, and the FBI on your company's board, approving all your decisions.
It's why she lost. She didn't campaign in the rust belt swing states. There were stories of the DNC down there freaking out because nobody was showing up to help them win. She bought into that "Blue Firewall" nonsense and figured since the voted Obama they'd vote for her. She lost by a hair's breath. All she had to do to win was stop wasting time in Arizona and hit the pavement in the states that mattered.
But well, she always was arrogant as heck. That was one of the main faults people sited for not liking her, and well, elections are popularity contests...
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