The White House on Tuesday shot back at a leading House Republican critic of the Obama administration’s green energy loan guarantee program by characterizing a comment he made on National Public Radio on Monday as “counterproductive defeatism.”
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, told NPR on Monday that he doesn’t think that America can compete with China when it comes to building renewable energy technologies.
“We can’t compete with China to make solar panels and wind turbines,” he told NPR.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer leaped on Stearns’ remarks in a White House blog post on Tuesday.
“Chairman Stearns and other members of his party in Congress believe that America cannot, or should not, try to compete for jobs in a cutting edge and rapidly growing industry,” Pfeiffer wrote. “We simply disagree: the answer to this challenge is not to wave the white flag and give up on American workers. America has never declared defeat after a single setback – and we shouldn’t start now.”
The White House noted, that the U.S. is, in fact, competing in the international solar market. The United States actually exports more solar technology — to the tune of $1.8 billion — than it it imports, according to the White House.
The problem for U.S. solar tech manufacturers is that China gives its solar companies massive subsidies of $30 billion, which enables them to make cheaper products.
Cheaper Chinese products was one of the factors that led to the bankruptcy of U.S. solar panel maker Solyndra, which was the beneficiary of a $535 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy in 2009.
U.S. tech companies actually favor a role for the federal government in providing incentives and changing tax structures in order to make the business environment more friendly to tech start-ups. The Chinese government often offers tech start-ups in China (even ones run by foreigners) free land and other incentives to foster economic development.
