President Trump turns out the lights on solar panel imports into US US President Donald Trump has signed an order to place a 30 per cent tariff on the import of parts used to build solar panels. The new charges, pitched on Monday by the White House as relief for domestic manufacturers, are instead being slammed by US solar industry groups as an effort to destroy the solar energy market in …
Maybe Trump really did this to protect nearly non-existent US solar panel manufacturing, but more likely he did it at the behest of his coal buddies who are upset that wind and solar are becoming price competitive with coal (and natural gas is much cheaper) It would be in line with other things his administration has done to help out that dying industry like relax the rules that try to prevent coal ash spill disasters like the one in North Carolina a couple years ago.
However, panel prices are only about a third of the cost of utility scale PV installations, so a 30% tariff will only raise the price of utility scale installs by 10% - turn the clock back a few years at most. It would have even less effect on the total price of residential installs, where the relatively larger labor component means panel prices are even less of the total cost.
It would save money for the US overall to quit trying to protect the dying coal industry, and simply pay a pension to those who have been working in the mines for so long they are too old to retrain, and retrain the rest who knew going in working in the coal mines wouldn't be something they'd still be doing at retirement age. Also offer some federal economic incentives for businesses to relocate to coal country like West Virginia to diversify their economies.
You're right: it's tokenism. Nothing will save coal as long as shale production is so cheap. But the fuckwits in the Appalachians are too dumb to realise this and will continue to think he's "on their side". Trump wants right-wingers to win the primaries in the run up to the mid-terms so he has a House full of single-issue loons.
If only we had a Prime Minister who did was he said like Trump. America first means America first.
Build those pannels in America using American workers and there is no problem, use cheap third world labour to construct them and face a tariff.
Of course the liberal screeching autistic left will use anything to try and score points against him but look at the facts - the economy is booming, jobs are flying back into America from overseas and he's even brought the democrats to heel over the government shutdown.
By the way, if anyone wants to win some easy money, when the fake news and fake polls have Trump with no chance to win in the next US Presidential election put your house on it. He's an absolute certainty.
Of course the liberal screeching autistic left will use anything to try and score points against him
If anybody is ADHD, it is the Orange Baboon. It is possible to nudge a economy in a particular direction by applying tariffs. It, however requires a combination of stick (tariffs), carrot (manufacturing subsidies) which are specifically formulated so that they do not violate the law.
It is not difficult. All that was needed was to specifically target types of panels known for their timed obsolescence and do it on environmental grounds. Do not even frame that as tariff - make it "environmental protection tax" - for recycling purposes.
Unfortunately, this kind of stuff requires non-toddler levels of thought and does not fit into an immediate gratification mindset. So rather unsurprisingly we do not see it.
If only we had a Prime Minister - You mean our our own immediate gratification Kipling reciting hair disorganized dolt of Turkish immigrant origin. No thanks. Him becoming prime minister? Most of us are not keen on the country being run like "We Got Old News For You". It gets unfunny after a while.
You were doing so well up to the "Turkish immigrant" part of your comment.
If you are going to quote the FULL likeness of "The Beloved Quasi-Idiot" versus his transatlantic counterpart you need to emphasize on the key detail. THEY ARE BOTH DIRECT DESCENDANTS OF IMMIGRANTS. The sole difference is that while Scotland MPs have apologized in the house of Commons for gifting the world with a Donald, Erdogan is yet to do so (it's a fact - it takes a big P stick to make him say the S word)
It is quite entertaining to listen to their anti-immigration rhetoric. Both of them. Shouldn't he be threatening us with "My compatriots will come, flood the country and take your jobs" if he is really honest about it (I am referring to Boris talking about Turkey joining the Eu in the run-up to BrExit).
Additionally, in the specific case of our dear Kipling quoting Turkish Empire bureaucrat descendant, I suggest you look up the meaning of Rayah. Yep, that's you and me as far as he is concerned and it shows.
"If anybody is ADHD, it is the Orange Baboon".
Really, and what qualifies YOU to make that diagnosis? An over inflated view of your own pompous and self righteous opinions?
"Most of us are not keen on the country being run like "We Got Old News For You". It gets unfunny after a while."
Perhaps you missed it but we had a vote on your liberal EU utopia, most of were not keen on the country being ran by the pseudo marxist cabal of the EU. Do keep up, or feel free to move. I hear Sweden is wonderful (rape capital of the western world).
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I wonder if the decreasing coal exports had anything to do with this. With the US exports of coal decreasing each year due to cheaper alternatives and renewable sources of energy, it does make one wonder.
Naturally this is all a brain-dead idea but Trump doesn't believe that humans are a major contributor in global warming/climate change/whateveryouwannacallit and so such a backwards policy is hardly a surprise from him. This is just more evidence that Trump is in fact an idiot, there are many deniers still around but the evidence continues to build up and up.
Trump has only survived in business due to a high level of corruptness, celebrity status and con artistry at a corporate level. I am trying to think of a great businessman that ever had a company they owned/run go bankrupt even once, Trump has had that happen four times with a strong indication that the reason they went bankrupt so fast being the likelihood that he was funneling money from those businesses to his personal accounts. It isn't smart, intelligent or competent but it is highly corrupt and without actual business acumen, about the only thing Trump could have done to retain his money in the long run... of course other people might have thought about just selling the companies in question but it would probably have been harder to do all the tax dodges if Trump had done that instead.
Once upon a time the govt. thought it would be a good idea to encourage a local semi-conductor manufacturing industry. So they imposed a tariff on imported components. Just on components, not on assemblies which included such components.
Looking at any PCB manufactured back then it had a lot of components stamped with all sorts of countries as source of origin. It would have been quite infeasible to build a product locally which would have avoided paying tariffs on such components. It was cheaper, therefore, to buy in stuff assembled abroad. All it did was damage the local electronics industry.
We still have that tariff. We still don't have that big semi-conductor manufacturing industry. We buy stuff fully assembled from China.
Something I read recently reminded me of this.
Every tariff only punishes the local population not the intended target. It might help a few people but largely it's a job killer as you point out with steel. Another example is sugar in the US and you'll see that we pay about 40% more than the rest of the world. You'll also find out why high fructose corn syrup is so widely used and why confectionery jobs move out of the country. If we're lucky this tariff will have similar results and we'll only lose three jobs for every one we save. Somehow I don't see us being that lucky.
> Every tariff only punishes the local population not the intended target.
It will be the same with 'the wall'. The Orange Buffoon as suggested putting a tariff of stuff from Mexico as he thinks that this will 'make Mexico pay for the wall'. The only result is that prices in the US will go up as it is the importer that pays the tariff and they pass it on the the [US] consumer.
Meanwhile Solar Farms will bypass this tariff and will build their farms in Mexico and then export the electricity to the US.
the power generation industry has many tools in it's kit bag to fight from taxes to building codes to land zoning.
AND they have the money to bribe politicians at state and national levels.
And to monetise the investment in solar anything you need the ability to sell surplus to the grid (state or nation-based).
VietNam has an abundance of sun and our government has been a little slow off the mark. The simplest solar system is a coil of black plastic hose-type pipe spread over a roof which can quickly produce water hot enough to make a coffee.
Looking out of my high-rise condominium it is very encouraging to see just how many homes have installed solar systems be they for heating water (most popular) or electricity. Even the poorest souls in this country can have hot water.
When I constructed two hotels for my wife (I actually employed labourers) we designed solar in to the designs. Rarely do guests turn 'instant' water heaters on sufficiently to trigger electrical consumption. Our electricity, sourced from battery-backed solar, results in frequent meter changes (EVN can't accept our not stealing electricity) and bills that amount to chump change of £20-30 per month for a total room count of 98.
I can understand those who claim solar arrays can disfigure the appearance of classical buildings, a little planning can minimise such changes in appearance.
"Today, China Gyna dominates the global supply chain and, by its own admission, is looking to increase its capacity to account for 70 percent of total planned global capacity expansions announced in the first half of 2017,"
Fixed. No need to worry. Gyna does not import much.
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