Now obama will increase Wind Power costs

[hypocritexposer]

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday it was launching an investigation that could lead to steep import duties on more than $100 million worth of wind energy towers from China and Vietnam.

The decision adds to the friction in clean energy trade between the world's two largest economies.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2012/01/19/us-to-probe-imports-wind-towers-from-china-vietnam/?test=latestnews#ixzz1jwtRAmCr

 

[Steve]

The Commerce Department is already investigating charges that Chinese solar panel manufacturers engage in unfair trade practices and will issue a preliminary decision on duties next month.

The Wind Tower Trade Coalition, a group of U.S. producers, is asking for anti-dumping duties of 64 percent on imports from China and 59 percent from Vietnam. They also want additional countervailing duties on imports from China to offset alleged government subsidies.

A separate U.S. government agency, the International Trade Commission, held a hearing on Thursday to probe whether U.S companies have been materially harmed or threatened by the imports. The ITC has the final word on whether any U.S. duties are imposed.

Kerry Cole, president of Trinity Structural Towers, told the panel that domestic producers suffered a severe blow when none of their towers was selected for the 338-tower Shepherds Flat project in eastern Oregon, which is due to be completed next year and is billed as the world's largest wind farm.

"All of it went to China ... This lone lost sale had ripple effects throughout the industry ...

and here is the rest of the story.... and it ain't pretty..

America's Worst Wind-Energy Project


The majority of the funding for the $1.9 billion, 845-megawatt Shepherds Flat wind project in Oregon is coming courtesy of federal taxpayers. And that largesse will provide a windfall for General Electric and its partners on the deal who include Google, Sumitomo, and Caithness Energy. Not only is the Energy Department giving GE and its partners a $1.06 billion loan guarantee, but as soon as GE's 338 turbines start turning at Shepherds Flat, the Treasury Department will send the project developers a cash grant of $490 million.

The deal was so lucrative for the project developers that last October, some of Obama's top advisers, including energy-policy czar Carol Browner and economic adviser Larry Summers, wrote a memo saying that the project's backers had "little skin in the game" while the government would be providing "a significant subsidy (65+ percent)." The memo goes on to say that, while the project backers would only provide equity equal to about 11 percent of the total cost of the wind project, they would receive an "estimated return on equity of 30 percent."

this is truly pathetic..