Worries are growing in Washington that a flood of Chinese products could put new American investments in clean energy and high-tech factories at risk. ( www.nytimes.com )

TheFriar , 5 months ago

US, for decades and decades: keeps burning fossil fuels and kowtowing to fossil fuel industry at every turn while consumers beg for renewable energies/environmentally friendly investment

US, decades and decades later: “guys, china is investing in renewable energies! What are we supposed to do!!?!”

Fuck off. Goddammit.

SeikoAlpinist , 5 months ago

I don't have access to read the full article, but how is this a bad thing?

It seems, from the first couple of paragraphs I read, that China is flooding the market with lower cost products that are better for the environment than status quo.

Why does it matter where the come from? Is this not a net positive? Is the USA so afraid of China that they would rather have everyone spending more money, and using traditional ICE vehicles?

Again, I don't have the full article but I don't see this as a worry.

Empricorn , 5 months ago

Someone shared the article, so try again?

I think it's because with Capitalism every venture must have a ROI. Innovations in the US came with the assumption that the money invested by rich people will someday be worth more money.

silence7 OP Mod , 5 months ago

Like most of my posts to paywalled content, it's a gift link, so you have full access to it. (When I don't have a gift link, I try to post a link to an archived copy as well as the main link)

And yes, a competition to produce the machinery of decarbonization is a good thing.

SeikoAlpinist , 5 months ago

Thanks, I see it now; it was user error as I had not enabled JavaScript for that site.

Thanks for sharing. So the US is not competitive on price and scale when it comes to EVs and solar panels, and therefore the powers that be argue that we need to actively harm US consumers through protectionist measures in order to protect business. How is that even remotely responsible?

Also, the article is critical of Chinese factories for mass producing solar panels in large quantities all the time instead of laying off employees when demand is low. I mean, this helps deliver a solution to a problem that the US fails to acknowledge. If only the US had that kind of ambition....

silence7 OP Mod , 5 months ago

Yeah a better answer is to support scaling up US industry to make its products cheaper

No_Eponym , 5 months ago

Well, if the experience in Germany re solar cells is any indication of how the future might play out, there are several issues:

• global reliance on one market leads to supply bottlenecks and anti-competitive practices

• a loss of domestic industry leads to less overall innovation, a loss of high-paying jobs and a reduction in the diversity of the industrial base

• given the current American economy is tied to fossil fuel or adjacent industries, a failure to transition to clean industry may mean all those jobs, families, communities etc are at risk

• development of solar in China has led to a host of quality and environmental issues in manufacturing; reversing that trend is much harder now that it is entranced than it would have been to stop at the outset.