Re:U.S. Imposes Steep Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels
by AnthonyMouse on Saturday December 20, 2014 @03:08PM
(#8777750)
> The Solar Energy Industries Association
The people who make solar panels in the US are a preposterously small constituency.
The thing to remember is that cheap Chinese solar panels don't just compete with less-cheap American solar panels, they also compete with oil, coal and every other source of generating electricity.
Fossil fuel companies fight the construction of nuclear plants by claiming we should be building solar instead, because they know if they prevent nuclear then solar isn't cost competitive with fossil fuels. Then they make sure solar isn't cost competitive by doing things like this. And if that doesn't work they do what OPEC has been doing recently and increase production so that fossil fuel prices fall.
It's not a "conspiracy" -- it's companies and OPEC-member governments acting in their own rational self-interest. (If you can call ignoring climate change rational.)
The people who make solar panels in the US are a preposterously small constituency.
The thing to remember is that cheap Chinese solar panels don't just compete with less-cheap American solar panels, they also compete with oil, coal and every other source of generating electricity.
Fossil fuel companies fight the construction of nuclear plants by claiming we should be building solar instead, because they know if they prevent nuclear then solar isn't cost competitive with fossil fuels. Then they make sure solar isn't cost competitive by doing things like this. And if that doesn't work they do what OPEC has been doing recently and increase production so that fossil fuel prices fall.
It's not a "conspiracy" -- it's companies and OPEC-member governments acting in their own rational self-interest. (If you can call ignoring climate change rational.)