There is a trade debate that the government is investigating currently, and that is the price of solar panels coming from China.  Apparently the Chinese government is subsidizing their solar panel production industry in order to lower the costs to consumers in America.  The effect of this would be that the solar panel market would be and is controlled largely by China.  Here in a America we  also subsidize solar companies, to supposedly keep up with China, making the cost of an American solar panel much higher.

If the government make sanctions on China importation of panels, then all prices will go up.  There is a problem with this, most of the solar business done in America is installations, not production of solar panels.  A price increase would affect the bottom line of these solar installation companies which make up about 51% of the industry in America.  These sanctions if enforced would not be good obviously for the American worker and only add to the job problem.

There is no solution that will not affect some section of the industry, if China is illegally subsidizing their solar panel industry, our government would be obliged to impose sanctions on China import of solar panels.  If China is within their right to subsidize, then the market for manufacturing in America will continue to suffer.  Conclusion, with a global economy there are no easy solutions to such issues, however, we do have to make clear and conscience designation of our import laws, to progress toward a global economy, our government cannot and should not abandon law due to the economic issues at hand. There will always be hard decisions that have to be made for progress, solar energy is progress, progress that may come at a price.

Terry Hatchett