A serious threat to the survival of the flourishing U.S. solar industry

After declaring bankruptcy, Suniva, Inc. on April 26, 2017 led a petition with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) asking the government to put its thumb on the scale of the U.S. solar market. On May 25, SolarWorld Americas announced it had joined as co-petitioner. This case poses a major threat to the U.S. solar industry and its 260,000 workers according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Last month, the International Trade Commission, in a 4-0 voted, sided with the manufacturers who had filed a petition under Section 201 of the Trade Act seeking relief from foreign manufactured solar cells. The petition only had to show that the two companies could not compete because of the import of cheaper solar cells, mainly from China but also Mexico. They were not obliged to demonstrate malicious intent by their rivals.

Since the ruling, and a backlash from virtually every other quarter of the U.S. solar energy sector, Suniva  has backed down from its original 40-cent-a-watt tariff on CSPV cells to a tariff of 25 cents per watt. It has also reduced its demand for a 78-cent-a-watt floor on module prices, to 32 cents per watt. SolarWorld has also modified its position and SEIA has filed its own petition. (The SolarWorld and SEIA briefs were too large to upload here.)

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), estimates the ruling could “more than double the cost of solar and put 88,000 jobs at risk.”

THE SOLAR INDUSTRY’S STANCE

The imposition of tariffs and price oors would damage • the whole solar industry.

• According to ClearView Energy Partners and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the proposed tariff and minimum pricing requirements would double the price of solar panels in the U.S.

• This would come after years of lowering solar costs to consumers through innovation, production scale, improved business practices and greater understanding of solar technologies.

• The rise in solar costs would slash demand. Solar project costs would rise dramatically for both rooftop and utility scale, and solar would become less competitive. Today, solar is one of the least expensive energy sources in America.

• The U.S. solar industry employs 260,000 Americans. This petition puts these jobs at risk and if successful, 88,000 jobs will be lost nationwide, including 6,300 jobs in Texas, 4,700 in North Carolina and a whopping 7,000 jobs in South Carolina.

• Today’s solar industry is a force in America’s economy. GTM valued the industry at $23 billion in 2016, and solar was the top source of new U.S. electricity generation last year. This incredible progress will be stopped in its tracks if the petition prevails.

The relief sought by Suniva and SolarWorld would exacerbate the underlying problem of an excess global supply of solar cells and modules by severely limiting the U.S. market. Raising trade barriers and inhibiting the import of fairly-traded goods will not jumpstart U.S. cell and module manufacturing.

• Manufacturers in other parts of the solar sector across the U.S., such as racking systems, have been adding jobs. Solar manufacturing already employs more than 38,000 Americans. The fact that petitioners are laying off employees doesn’t re ect the growth in American manufacturing jobs. 

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Remembering Mayak, the nuclear disaster that no one talks about

To most, a major nuclear accident means Chernobyl or Fukushima. But the world's third most deadly nuclear disaster happened 60 years ago, on September 29, 1957, at the Mayak plutonium production facility, in a closed Soviet city. High-level nuclear waste had already been dumped for years into the nearby Techa river, still contaminated today with high levels of cesium 137, strontium 90 and plutonium. When Karatchai Lake, also used as a nuclear waste dump, was drained in 1967, radioactive dust particles were lofted into the air and dispersed far and wide. But the huge explosion at Mayak was kept secret for decades. Villages were bulldozed leaving people with nothing, "even the possibility to have kids," says exiled Russian activist, Nadezda Kutepova (pictured at left with local woman), who fought for medical treatment and benefits for residents. Swiss activist, Stefan Füglister, says the crime of Mayak was that the health and safety of inhabitants was deliberately and knowingly sacrificed to the arms race. "Compared to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the workers of Mayak, the inhabitants of the valley of the Techa, as well as those in the downfall area of the bomb trial site of Semipalatinsk, were exposed to higher collective - and in some cases - also to higher individual doses," he said. Yet Mayak, now public, still seems like a secret.  

Why the nuclear weapons ban matters

Nuclear-Free Future Award winner, Susi Snyder, of PAX, recently appeared on Democracy Now! to explain the significance of the UN nuclear weapons ban treaty. Wrote Democracy Now! on its website:

"Amid tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, 51 countries have signed the world’s first legally binding treaty banning nuclear weapons. It prohibits the development, testing and possession of nuclear weapons, as well as using or threatening to use these weapons. It was first adopted in July by 122 U.N. member states, despite heavy U.S. opposition. None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons signed the measure, including Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. We speak with Susi Snyder, nuclear disarmament program manager for the Netherlands-based group PAX and author of the report 'Don’t Bank on the Bomb.'"

Watch the video

Sep. 26 is Nuclear Abolition Day. It was also the day one man saved the world

On September 26, we should remember the man who saved the world. 

"Petrov was the lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union’s Air Defense Forces who, on the night of September 26, 1983 just happened to be in charge of monitoring his country’s satellite system that watched for a potential launch of nuclear weapons by the United States. In the early hours, such a launch appeared to have happened.

Petrov had only minutes to decide if the launch was genuine. He was supposed to report the alert up the chain of command. Doing so would almost certainly have led to a counterstrike, triggering a full-on nuclear exchange between the Soviet Union and the U.S. Instead, Petrov hesitated. And doubted.

The alarm suggested five missiles, too few for an all-out nuclear attack by the U.S. But time was of the essence. If Petrov’s doubts were misplaced and this was a real attack, his duty was to inform his superiors so a retaliatory strike could be launched.

But Petrov never made that call. Instead, he decided to check if there was a computer malfunction. This was later discovered to have been the case. A satellite had mistaken the sun’s reflection off the tops of clouds for a missile launch. The computer system had failed to make the distinction as well." (Petrov is pictured winning the Dresden Peace Prize in 2013.)

Read the rest of Linda Pentz Gunter's article in Counterpunch.

Amid Tensions with North Korea, 51 Countries Sign Ban on Nuclear Weapons Despite U.S. Opposition

As reported by Democracy Now!:

Amid tensions over North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, 51 countries have signed the world’s first legally binding treaty banning nuclear weapons. It prohibits the development, testing and possession of nuclear weapons, as well as using or threatening to use these weapons. It was first adopted in July by 122 U.N. member states, despite heavy U.S. opposition. None of the nine countries that possess nuclear weapons signed the measure, including Russia, Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. We speak with Susi Snyder, nuclear disarmament program manager for the Netherlands-based group PAX and author of the report "Don’t Bank on the Bomb."

Snyder, along with ICAN, was a 2016 Nuclear-Free Future Awards winner.