太陽能 And The Far Right

Everytime I tell myself that after years and years of holding my nose and voting for crappy Democrats who don't represent me politically-- primarily because they're better than the far more odious Republican they're running against-- this will be the election I finally put a stop to it, two things cross my mind. First is a picture of one of those crazytown Republican debates and the prospect of Romney or Perry or Bachmann or any of those sociopaths being president (so, the old excuse I've been biting on since Lyndon Johnson ran against Barry Goldwater). And second, as big a disappointment as Obama has been-- of course, having followed his execrable career in the Senate I knew exactly how mediocre he would be-- he did do one thing I really owe him for... BIG. Solar energy.

My electric bill was between $1,000 and $1,400 a month; don't ask. So, largely thanks to Obama, I was able to put a huge solar array on my roof-- something like 40 panels-- and 75% was reimbursed by the federal and state governments. My electric bill is now zero. Actually, I'm getting credits for electricity I'm feeding back into the grid. They don't pay for it but if we ever have 40 days of no sunlight, I'll still have free electricity. So how big a creep would I have to be to repay Obama for that by not voting for him? Especially with the Oily Republicans cooking up yet another fake solar scandal against him. Drudge and deranged right wing propaganda sheet the Weekly Standard cooked up some far-fetched nonsense about a recent $737 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to a solar energy company called SolarReserve. They insinuate that DoE approved the loan because Ronald Pelosi, brother-in-law of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, is "number two" at an investment firm that has an interest in SolarReserve.

It is true that Ronald Pelosi is an executive at Pacific Corporate Group, one of the private equity firms that has plugged more than $100 million into SolarReserve. But it is patently false that he will benefit from the loan (as Drudge asserts, although Weekly Standard only implies).

Ronald Pelosi joined PCG this past spring, whereas the firm first invested in SolarReserve three years ago. More importantly, Ronald Pelosi does not have a financial interest in the fund that houses SolarReserve. If the fund generates big profits on its investment, Pelosi gets nothing. If the fund's investment gets wiped out, Pelosi's bank account won't take a hit.

Moreover, a PCG spokesman insists that no member of the firm had any contact with the White House about the SolarReserve loan.

By the end of the day, Drudge took down the post entirely... disappeared, like so many manufactured right-wing lies they get called out on. But as long as we;re talking about solar energy, there is a scandal: China. They're gaining an inordinate foothold in the U.S. market. The 40-some-odd panels on my roof were all made in the U.S.A. But China is determined to take over the European and American solar markets. American Public Media's "Marketplace" ran a mini-feature on it yesterday. Here's the transcript:

China is far outpacing the U.S. in solar panel manufacturing-- a fact American producers say is in part due to a violation of global trade rules.

STEVE CHIOTAKIS: Here at home, American solar panel manufacturers are reportedly preparing a trade complaint against China. They say subsidies from the Chinese government violate global trade rules, and make Chinese imports artificially cheap. The case could be one of the largest trade cases targeting China in years.

From Shanghai, here's Marketplace China bureau chief Rob Schmitz.

ROB SCHMITZ: For years, the rule of thumb for many U.S. companies has been design your product at home, make it in China.

Ben Santarris is a spokesman for SolarWorld, the largest U.S. solar panel manufacturer based in Oregon.

BEN SANTARRIS: We don't want to go to China. We live here. We believe it's very important to have a source of renewable energy and technology in the United States.

These days, remaining loyal to the U.S. can hurt. Yesterday, SolarWorld laid off 150 people. Santarris says Chinese solar companies have taken over the U.S. market. He says Chinese companies can sell panels below what it costs to make them. That's because the companies are propped up with a seemingly endless stream of Chinese government money-- twenty times what the U.S. government gives American companies.

And Santarris says it's not just about subsidies.

SANTARRIS: We have environmental and safety and labor and quality standards that we, as a society in the United States, think are right for our system. And yet we're allowing producers from countries that don't hold those standards to flood our markets with their products.

Just how bad is it? At this summer's North American solar panel convention in San Francisco, Santarris says China had 45 exhibitors. The U.S.? Four.

We'll have to ask Miss McConnell, John Boehner, Ron Johnson and Pat Toomey-- four well-paid agents of the Chinese government-- about how the China they love and admire so deeply could possibly be doing business like that.