On November 1, CREIA has issued a statement on the petition against Chinese PV cells filed by certain U.S. solar cell companies, considering the petition as a common trade disputes and hoping to resolve it through a friendly consultation. Though U.S. President Obama weighed in on the petition on November 2, saying that there are “questionable competitive practices coming out of China” in the clean energy space. We believe that, from this moment, the petition has been upgraded from a pure commercial act to a political farce, which is very likely a publication show initiated by the Obama administration for the coming election. They attempt to shift the responsibility of U.S. clean energy development failure, especially president Obama‟s personal responsibility, to Chinese solar cell companies. CREIA is authorized to issue this statement to express regret and condemn upon president Obama‟s behavior, and to state our position and views.

The stagnation of U.S. clean energy development is caused by the failure of the Obama administration policy, not by so-called „‟questionable competitive practices coming out of China”. Although the Obama administration used to claim clean energy as an important measure to stimulate economic growth and increase employment opportunities, there are no effective policies introduced since Mr. President held his post more than two years ago. It is because of the lack of stable policy incentives, clean energy has become a high-risk industry in the U.S., resulting in an unsatisfactory outcome of U.S. clean energy development in recent years. Taking the wind power industry as an instance, U.S. wind power has been leading the global industry development before 2009, and the installed capacity has reached 10 million kilowatts by the end of 2009, ranking the top one in the world. However, due to fluctuating incentives, the new installed capacity of U.S. wind power in 2010 declined from 10 million kilowatts to 500 kilowatts, down by more than 50%. In addition, the Obama administration proposed a $ 50 billion credit guarantee program for renewable energy, and funded certain companies with unsatisfactory technical and operational performance in clean energy development and utilization. One typical case is that three solar cell companies, who respectively received hundreds of millions of dollars in credit guarantees and bank loans, had to declare bankruptcy due to behind-the-level technology and poor management, and the government had to pay the bill. According to another source, President Obama attended one of the companies‟ribbon-cutting ceremony, and Mr. Steven Chu also endorsed its credit guarantee.

President Obama is only the nominal advocate of clean energy revolution. In fact, he pays more attention to fossil fuels, which is another reason of the failure of U.S. clean energy development. Since President Obama hosted the White House, he encouraged a high-profile “new energy” revolution initiative and concerned about the climate

change, which earned him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. However, U.S. Department of Energy announced that by 2030, the proportion of U.S. fossil energy utilization will continue to increase. In addition, the White House has also put more attention on the oil and gas development and utilization, encouraging offshore oil drilling and the production of other unconventional natural gas such as shale gas. The U.S. opened the door to offshore oil drilling since President Obama entered the White House, making the exploitation of offshore oil an important part of the U.S. integrated energy strategy. Even the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 did not stop President Obama‟s pace to cancel the U.S. ban on offshore oil drilling. 2010, U.S. oil production increased by 30 million tons compared with 2008. In the same year, United States overtook Russia as world‟s biggest natural gas producer with an increased production of 40 billion cubic meters. Compared with a decreased domestic oil production of 50 million tons during President George W. Bush‟s tenure, President Obama has made remarkable achievements in fossil energy exploitation. However, what he has done is entirely alien from what was promised, and most of his previous declaration is not fulfilled.

In summary, the lack of continuity and stability of U.S. government policy is the root cause of U.S.PV and wind power market decline, clean energy market fluctuation, investor confidence loss and manufacturing sector stagnation. In other countries such as Germany, China and India, where clean energy has experienced continued growth, there are stable positive market incentives to support domestic market development. For instance, the fixed-tariff policy in Germany and China has created a broad market space to wind and solar power utilization, facilitating the development of both domestic and the world manufacturing industry. The most outstanding U.S. solar cell producers, such as First Solar, as well as other technical equipment and raw material manufacturers like DuPont, Applied Materials and Dow Corning, get the benefit from these policies. In addition, as the initiator of this petition, Solar World is one of the beneficiaries of PV industry policy in countries such as Germany and China.

On the basis of above-mentioned facts and analysis, CREIA proposes the following four requirements upon President Obama‟s remarks. 

First, it is required that the U.S. government announce the list of all other six unnamed companies who filed the petition together with Solar World, indicating whether any of these companies is still facing a loss although it got the federal funding, and clarifying their property relations with Solar World. We question the legitimacy that they filed the petition on behalf of the entire U.S. solar cell industry in the case that they remain unnamed.

Second, it is required that the U.S. Congress investigate the effectiveness of the Obama administration‟s credit guarantee program on clean energy industry, especially clarifying where the money goes with those solar cell companies who got the federal funding but still face a loss, in order to disclose to U.S. taxpayers the truth of their loss and bankruptcy. 

Third, it is required that the U.S. government scrutinize the petition closely to determine the legitimacy and effectiveness of Solar World filing the petition. As a German company, more than 80% of Solar World‟s production comes from outside the U.S. However, regardless of economies of scale, Solar World set up a number of factories with only less than 100MW in the U.S., which is suspected a deliberate layout to file the petition. As an association of China‟s renewable energy industry, we question the legitimacy and property that this company filed the petition on behalf of U.S. solar cell companies.

Fourth, it is hoped that as President of the United States and a Nobel Peace prize winner, Mr. Obama could face his own fault of this groundless accusation toward Chinese companies and government, truly concern about U.S. clean energy development, and guide the establishment of reasonable and effective incentives. It is hoped that the United States could tide over difficulties together with all other countries e, eliminate trade barriers, fight against unfair competition, and truly become the world leader, leading the global clean energy development.

Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association 

November 7, 2011