Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t ResourceGuy; Will President Biden’s Green Revolution be built on the blood of persecuted Chinese minorities? President Biden has moved to suspend restrictions imposed by the US Commerce Department, after tariffs were imposed following an accusation that Chinese manufactured components are being secretly incorporated into third party products.
Solar stocks jump after Biden administration announces tariff suspensions
PUBLISHED MON, JUN 6 20229:00 AM EDT
Jesse Pound@JESSERPOUNDPresident Joe Biden declared a 24-month tariff exemption for solar panel products from several Southeast Asian nations, and announced the use of the Defense Production Act to promote domestic production.
The tariffs had received increased criticism in recent months as the war in Europe has driven up energy prices around the world.
Solar energy stocks soared Monday after a report that the Biden administration will suspend tariffs on solar panel components from four countries.
President Joe Biden declared a 24-month tariff exemption for solar panel products from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, and announced the use of the Defense Production Act to promote domestic production. The news was first reported by Reuters. The move comes as a Commerce Department investigation into the solar industry in Southeast Asia has added more hurdles to importing equipment.
…
“We believe the announcement will be a clear positive for our coverage, particularly within the utility-scale solar market, which has faced uncertainty since the US Department of Commerce’s AD/CVD investigation was launched in late-March,” JPMorgan analyst Mark Strouse said in a note to clients.
…
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2022/04/24/will-bidens-commerce-department-really-punish-solar-in-asia/
The US Commerce Department opened the investigation because of an accusation from a US solar manufacturer Auxin Solar, a minority and women led company, that companies in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam were selling solar assemblies to the USA, constructed from components manufactured by Chinese companies subject to tariff restrictions.
The tariffs were imposed because of accusations of dumping – state subsidies to allow Chinese companies to undercut other manufacturers. But the USA also banned imports of solar panels manufactured using suspected forced labor – people China has allegedly forced into concentration camps and slave labor, as part of their alleged effort to eradicate minority cultures the Chinese Communists believe are a threat to the state.
For anyone who doubts something very bad is happening in China, there was a recent leak of hacked Chinese documents, allegedly China’s own meticulous internal records of their human rights violations and cruelty.
Xinjiang, the heart of the alleged forced labor concentration camp horror, is a major manufacturer of cheap solar components. Manufacturers of solar panels need lots of high quality coal and a big industrial base to process the silicon, and Xinjiang has both. Vast amounts of coal are consumed by the chemical process which reduces quartz to silicon, and further coal is required to fuel the furnaces which heat the raw materials to the temperature required to initiate and sustain the chemical reaction which refines the silicon.
So while nobody has directly accused Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand of using slave labor manufactured solar components, why wouldn’t they? Any companies which are concealing their use of Chinese components for the sake of higher profits are already likely committing a crime. Criminals rarely have scruples about workers rights – and Xinjiang manufactured solar components are some of the cheapest available.
President Biden’s suspension of tariffs in my opinion sends a shocking message to the world. In my opinion Biden’s circumvention of the investigative processes of his own commerce department effectively aids and abets any crimes which foreign suppliers of solar panels are committing, and is a real kick in the teeth for US based manufacturers like Auxin Solar, who are attempting to build a US business which is based on treating their workers with dignity.
Biden has effectively just told the world that his administration simply doesn’t care.
> “Biden has effectively just told the world that his administration simply doesn’t care…”
about anything except staying in power.
https://www.xinjiangpolicefiles.org/
Don’t forget the 10% for the Big Guy – he cares about that, too.
Yes, the Chicoms gave the Bidens at least $30 million, so lifting these tariffs may be a little bit of payback.
and screwing the American people while destroying the country. Brandon’s all about that sorta thing.
Biden and the rest of the greens do not give a rat’s ass about slavery and other forced labor. CO2 is so evil, one must ignore those pesky Uighurs.
In the coming days of the Great Reset most of us will be eliminated by starvation or enslaved to serve the Schwaubist Ubermensch elite.
Private jets to be exempted from carbon taxes.
Isnt it a who’s who of prominent Democrats on J Epstein’s client list, speaking of slave ‘labor’ supporters. Bill Gates apologized for his association with Epstein (which is believed to be the reason for Bill’s divorce). Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s private jet regularly, Chuck Schumer and many other top Dems received donations from Ep…. Hey, were talking about the real “entitlement” czars here. A few Blood Solar Panels is small change for these guys.
Haven’t some of our phones, laptops, and the rest of the stuff we buy been built on the blood of persecuted Chinese minorities? Yeah, but, butwhattabout that Biden and his solar panels, “shocking”, just shocking I tells ya.
Eric’s franchise of fear and hate factory still shippin’, while he looks the other way, not so shocked.
Look a squirrel.
Biden just kicked a US manufacturer in favour of foreign suppliers who were subject to US investigation and sanctions until Biden intervened.
But I guess the climate emergency is such a priority you don’t care either, eh Loydo?
I’d take your fear-mongering about those wicked furriners more seriously if you weren’t an Englishman living in Australia.
Ah, you think we should ignore allegations of large scale systematic slavery, because of your wild guesses about my ethnicity? For shame Loydo.
Loydo does not care about slaves in China, or Africa. He’s not one of them. Loydo does not care about children working under the hot sun, or toxic waste dumped into rivers to poison the peasants down stream. He doesn’t live there.
Loydo cares about himself. I won’t speculate on just how he makes a living, other than to note that he gets awfully unhappy about anything that might reduce the profits of the CCP.
Ahem, when it’s only a thing for you if it can be turned into fear/hate-mongering clickbait, politicised and blamed on your bad-guy of the day.
Meanwhile, half your stuff is produced the same way.
Three times and you’re out.
There is a lot of hatred here Loydo, and it’s emanating from you.
C’mon man, who here doesn’t love that nice Joe Biden?
Joe Biden has for his entire political career been known to be a liar and a cheater and worse.
Anyone with a brain.
Me! Me! Me!
Once again, Loydo can’t be bothered actually refuting anything written.
More than likely, even he knows he can’t.
SO much for Biden good paying jobs!!!!!!
Oh the Big Guy can do a deal. The Chinese gave Hunter 30million with a piece of the action for the Big Guy. Okay, let’s rescind the investigation of slavery, lift the sanctions and get those idled, no account, layabout Uighurs back to work! Heck, this is nothing compared to the Great Reset’s plans.
Like you Loydo, I can’t wait until oil drilling & coal mining are halted, and solar panels & wind turbines are made out of bamboo sustainably harvested from Chinese forests by voluntary labour.
Anyone else notice that Loydo never actually tries to refute anything. He just insults anyone who doesn’t worship as he does.
Anyone else notice that MarkW is like some kind of weird guard bot, never actually tries to refute anything or adds anything substantive. It just blurts out the same lines of code according to its algorithm, which must include something like:
>(have)lastsay -95%
Let me ask the bot: Do you own anything that is the product of slavery?
Do you?
I’ll answer on Loydo’s behalf, yes he does. It’s very hard not to even if you try hard not to purchase from dubious sources and manufacturers.
Like Fossil Fuel which is involved in every single thing in your life, stuff made in China sneaks in below your Radar
Loydo
“Anyone else notice that MarkW is like some kind of weird guard bot, never actually tries to refute anything or adds anything substantive. It just blurts out the same lines of code according to its algorithm, which must include something like:”
LOL, No one says less and takes longer to do it then you Pal.
The pathetic troll whines that I always want the last say, then it asks me a question.
Since I don’t get the last say, I can’t answer your question.
Yes, Loydo.
It’s wrong.
You are right to call us out for it but we’re not the hypocritical ones trying to force others to do what we are not prepared to do ourselves.
Throw away, your phones, laptops and the rest of the stuff, be a vegan, stop flying, stop driving, stop watching tv, stop eating anything you haven’t grown yourself, and stop heating your home.
Lead by example not by diktat.
If you have proof of slave labour in other Chinese products please let us know, it’s bad enough that they don’t allow real free unions or other freedoms but slave labour is beyond the pale.
The slave labour in western China has been an issue for a few years now and links to references were provided for those who needed them. I don’t understand your comment – are you saying we should not ban products known to be made with slave labour because other products may or may not be made with slave labour?
I don’t see the logic in your argument. Surely, we would ban the offending products and then start investigations with all the rest, for as you imply, they may be tainted as well.
Loydo’s not trying to make sense. He’s just desperate to defend Biden. This really is the best he can do.
Hey Loydo, why don’t you go get some photos and interviews with family members near the camps in western China. I’m sure it’s safe enough.
Chinese Doctors are Executing Prisoners by Harvesting Their Organs – LifeNews.com
“Haven’t some of our phones, laptops, and the rest of the stuff we buy been built on the blood of persecuted Chinese minorities?”
***********
Loydo:
The problem here Loydo is that the renewables industry is marketing solar and wind energy as virtuous and righteous alternative or solution in the face of the “evil” fossil fuels and a presumed climate crisis. Read my comment below posted on June 6 at 8:55 AM and try to understand the problem with that.
As far as I can tell Loydo, our cellphones, desktop and laptop computers, plasma TV’s and other consumer electronics are not being sold to us with the righteousness and virtuosity labels that we see in the renewables industry. Add in the Chinese slave labor issue, and the marketing problem for renewables only gets worse.
As I say in my comment below, take away the fossil fuels and the govt support for renewables, the the wind and solar energy industries collapse. The slave labor issue is just one of many nails in the coffin of renewables.
My comment below is at 8:55 PM, not AM.
I’ll explain it for you:
Apparently, it takes more than just capital subsidies, production credits and property tax reductions to make solar farms competitive…it takes slave labor as well.
Actually, all Brandon had to do was hogtie the more efficient and competitive energy systems and bingo! Only took him about 1.5 years to lead us into an “incredible transition” that nobody with any sense of real knowledge wanted.
Oh, and don’t forget the associated inflation. We told them what would happen, but their virtue signalling is more important than any associated costs levied to the rest of us.
Well the trolls are saying solar and wind are free. This for saving the planet makes slavery a virtue. Didn’t Steve Jobs have his components made in Chinese sweatshop ops for pennies which he assembled and sold for thousands of bucks?
c’mon man. 10% is a lot of money
“Manufacturers of solar panels need lots of high quality coal and a big industrial base to process the silicon, and Xinjiang has both. Vast amounts of coal are consumed by the chemical process which reduces quartz to silicon, and further coal is required to fuel the furnaces which heat the raw materials to the temperature required to initiate and sustain the chemical reaction which refines the silicon.”
********
Anyone who believes the solar and wind energy industry can exist without fossil fuels and support from government is living in a fantasy land. The possibility that solar panels might have components from slave labor is another nail in their coffin.
I am still not aware of a study that says wind turbines and solar panels save more CO2 GHGs during their lifetimes than were emitted from mining of the raw materials for them, manufacturing them and installing them on site.
Take away the fossil fuels and their govt support and watch the renewable energy industry collapse.
Good comment.
The wind industry in Europe is already in trouble and having to sell at a loss. Their remedy, of course, is more Government help.
As the Ducks about Recharge News ‘We’re all in trouble. Wind turbine makers’
We have had oil barons, cattle barons, rail road barons, and now have renewable energy barons. Just didn’t expect it would all be owned by China however.
The first three did not require government subsidies to get rich, and they produced a product that people wanted to buy.
How will that help domestic production?
Perhaps if Biden stopped fracking around and allowed the oil companies to do their job there would be no need for blood unreliables
No, green policies have driven up energy prices, the invasion of Ukraine just made things worse.
The simple solution is for Joe to use the Defense Production Act and order Solyndra to double production. After all, during the time when Joe was Vice President we already gave them half a billion dollars. They owe us.
Ouch! That left a mark.
The Chinese are so efficient with their use of people.
They have a bunch of slaves manufacturing products that have marginal use (solar panels) and the slaves are also their inventory for spare body parts.
Klaus Schwab was wondering what to do with “useless” people and China is showing him a solution.
What a world these leftists have created for the future. Good thing its ending in 12 years.
You’ve identified the reasons leftists admire China.
Isn’t it about eight years to doomsday now? 2030?
I saw a climate change protestor on tv the other day. She glued herself to a tennis court in some manner as a protest and her shirt said we only had 1,028 more days left. That was a couple of days ago.
Does she know the hour and the minute of doomsday as well?
The WEF has pushed for Agenda 2030 to replace Agenda 21 so you may be correct. It’s hard to keep up with the doomsday predictions because they are numerous and “fluid”.
I thought Biden said he was going to boost _local_ production. I suppose that could happen as long as the locals don’t mind competing against slaves.
“F’ it Up Finer”
It did happen right before he sucker punched them. Now they have a profit margin problem on a larger scale.
The ongoing rise of Chinese manufactures replacing all other producers of everything is coming to an end.
The demographic time bomb has been set off and there is no stopping its destructive power.
By the end of the century, China will lose about 700 million people from its population. Putting that into some immediate perspective.
There will be roughly 10 million less Chinese workers every year from now on.
I am guessing, manufacturing of solar panels, won’t be a high priority for China in the coming years.
These trends you mention are beginning to appear and are raising concern about what the crash landing will look like.
The Chicoms will just have to enslave more people to make up for it.
I hope all Watts readers are diligent in researching and excluding from the purchases the many other items apart from solar panels also produced by Chinese slave labour (and the many electronic components also including cobalt from Africa)
Seriously? Are you suggesting forced labor tainted goods are OK because everyone is doing it? I expected that from Loydo but I’m disappointed to see you say that Griff.
In this case there’s no necessity excuse, Auxin Solar stands ready to provide untainted goods.
On the left, ideology trumps anything that might be considered righteous.
People on the left aren’t allowed to use that word, it makes them break out in hives.
Griff,
You could say it’s people like you who’ve moved us to the point of relying on stuff made by slave labour. The UK and USA are moving to Net Zero because of innumerate people such as you who think you can run a modern country on unreliable, intermittent and unpredictable so called renewable energy which requires large amounts of raw materials produced by dubious companies and then made into energy producing equipment by equally dubious componies in China and elsewhere. Apart from the slave and indentured labour, there’s pollution and the hidden use of fossil fuel. That doesn’t matter to the Home Counties Holier Than Thou preachers.
By the way please name one thing, just one single thing, in your life that hasn’t been produced either directly or indirectly using fossil fuels?
I don’t know if you’ve noticed that 52.47% of the electricity you’re using to post messages here is being produced by gas. 2.10% is being produced by wind
I suggest in order to save the planet you stop typing immediately
Yes, Griff.
It’s wrong.
You are right to call us out for it but we’re not the hypocritical ones trying to force others to do what we are not prepared to do ourselves.
Throw away, your phones, laptops and the rest of the stuff, be a vegan, stop flying, stop driving, stop watching tv, stop eating anything you haven’t grown yourself, and stop heating your home.
Lead by example not by diktat.
Don’t forget the associated inflation due to the demand for renewable electricity and its war on fossil fueled sources. In the wonderful world of economics how could products produced in locales not following the renewable electricity have lower prices.
Maybe Griffcoould help us here.
Griff
Most of us want to move all that industry back to the US and out of China, that’s why the tariffs are there in the first place. We want something done about it, we vote for people who will do something about it, you just say Meh slavery happens nothing I can do about it. A lot like the people in Europe supporting the south because of the cotton trade and those pesky northern religious types trying to end slavery.
Biden keeps saying green energy equals good paying jobs then he does this. Democrats will always be democrats same back then as it is today.
Biden did that after getting the largest U.S. producer of solar panels to expand in Ohio, then he did this. So, the investors in the U.S. have to eat the low returns and slave-supported import competition.
I’m guessing you have managed to wipe your memory regarding the articles here at WUWT on those very subjects.
Then again, your memory has always been very selective.
Not to worry Griff, the Chinese will soon be adding seabed nodule mining to the list of NIMBY handoff to the CCP in the Pacific. That’s in addition to African investments.
The seabed of the Pacific Ocean is rich in metal nodules such as cobalt, nickel, manganese and copper._SMM | Shanghai Non ferrous Metals
Chinese fighter jet ‘chaffs’ Australian plane near South China Sea, Canberra alleges | CNN
Pacific Islands security pact: China plays for influence on Wang Yi’s tour | CNN
Does that include body organs? Maybe we should wait for Biden to decide after consultations with lobbyists and donor groups.
Chinese Doctors are Executing Prisoners by Harvesting Their Organs – LifeNews.com
RG
Yes. Look at the wait times for organ transplants in China vs the rest of the world: its weeks vs months (or longer), Just bring the cash!
This and the Uighurs are why I have been trying not to buy Chinese products.
Here is my reading list regarding this subject:
Organ Transplant – China
https://futurism.com/neoscope/organs-stolen-chinese-prisoners-studies [Feb 2019]
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-nightmare-of-human-organ-harvesting-in-china-11549411056 [Feb 2019]
and a metaanalysis [of 445 studies]
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/2/e024473 [Feb 2019]
https://theconversation.com/whose-hearts-livers-and-lungs-are-transplanted-in-china-origins-must-be-clear-in-human-organ-research-108077 [Feb 2019]
Thanks!
Side question: Are you related to Mary Zip in FL?
No one in FL.
We’ll it seems buying Hunter Biden ‘s paintings were a good investment after all!
seems so
Biden spends more time thinking about ice cream than the rights and suffering of slave labourers in western China. Hypocrisy is his brand and incompetence his specialty.
Thanks Eric.
If nothing else, this should educate on how things really work in policy and advocacy lands. Oh, and troll support land as shown above by Griff and Loydo. (They claim not to be Watts readers, but they are here on station daily as assigned and directed.)
Slave-made goods and components are just fine if the mass political balance is tipped in favor of lobbyists and the Party agenda punch list. There would be hell to pay if the salves made pumps for fracking or ICE engine parts. So, we have here a great learning lesson on the art of ignoring inconvenient things like hundreds of slave labor camps and the many coal fired plants powering their production. File them under the origins of COVID19 under “imported frozen seafood” according to the CCP talking points and open borders “for the children.”
We also have Griff and Loydo doing their best to make excuses and slants with consumer product cases that are not made in concentration camps but large industrial centers in China. Hint: One has very high fences and guard towers and the other has job opportunities for the Chinese working age population and what was at one time a 150 million strong transient work force in eastern provinces. One has known violations of human rights in agency files with massive emissions also ignored and the other has industrial strategy that the U.S. typically runs from or plays word games with.
In summary, we have a great learning lesson here on how 1) human rights concerns and are turned off as needed, 2) advocacy, Party planks, and troll groups drive the train not ‘countries’ and 3) energy and industrial policy in the U.S. remains nonexistent and subject to political cross currents of short-term interest.
Snips of interest on Biden’s decision.
WSJ
Liberals promise that green energy will create hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs to replace those killed by their war on fossil fuels. But many of those jobs will be in countries with lower labor and energy costs. Hence Mr. Biden is turning to the Defense Production Act to boost domestic companies.
…
What Europe needs is more natural gas, and what the U.S. needs are more pipelines and terminals to export it. But removing regulatory barriers for building this infrastructure isn’t part of the President’s order. Mr. Biden doesn’t explain how he’ll use the DPA but says he will “convene relevant industry, labor, environmental justice, and other key stakeholders.”
One of those “stakeholders,” climate alarmist Bill McKibben, days after Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine, urged Mr. Biden to invoke the DPA to build green-energy factories as FDR did to build weapons in World War II. Mr. McKibben wants the President “to incentivize domestic manufacturers” and “procure and install equipment in private industrial facilities to achieve the necessary production goals.”
————————————————–
In reality it’s more part-time jobs now secured by lobbyists in their continued run of rooftop solar credit mining for the rich. The U.S. producers will have to eat low returns for longer in the face of imports using slave labor components comprising much of the product. BTW, the Chinese will be happy to give tours to liberals in the highly automated panel assembly plants–just not the slave labor component factories. They are so gullible.
Is this a throwback to the 1930s when Americans were naive about the German “camps” where prisoners were being sent by the train loads or the other camps making weapons? And with western companies still doing business there and with Charles Lindbergh still advocating for Germany.
All quiet on the biased media front regarding slave labor for solar panel imports
“Row well and live. You live to serve this ship.” (solar panel component factory that is)
And if you don’t row well you will become a live organ donor like the rest.
You also don’t see any Federal contracting preference for non-slave labor certified products.
First Solar, Inc. – Responsible Solar: First Solar’s Ohio Manufacturing Complex Achieves Top Rating in RBA’s Validated Assessment Program Audit
I wonder what the Sierra Club and NRDC are using.