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Comment by Tom Bailey on August 17, 2010 at 5:15am

Could we all comment on this post.

Most options have issues!
Doing nothing but Complaining highlighting all the negs- without offering a plausable solution- we will never really correct our dependency timeline!

Best; Tom

Comment by John Wesley Nobles CA State Ldr on June 1, 2010 at 10:22pm

With elections just around the corner this is the time to find out who supports Pickens Plan and HR 1835. I have already voted by absentee ballot, and only voted for people that support Pickens Plan, The Constitution, and Fair Tax. Our vote is powerful! As Americans we determine who will represent us, and what issues are important to us. For a long time we were complacent, but it seems the sleeping giant is awakening. Freedom is not free! It is our responsibility to actively participate in the process!

Comment by John Wesley Nobles CA State Ldr on May 5, 2010 at 10:23pm

Eventually we are going to see HR 1835 passed. Until it is passed, we do not want to get bogged down with other day to day distractions. Keeping focused on the prize, and always moving forward is the way we get this job done. We can just keep calling senators and congressmen. If they already support us, thank them. If not, ask them to sign on a cosponsor. Boone has told the story a million times, it is always the same, and always sounds like the first time he is telling it. If we emulate our great leader we cannot go wrong. Many of us have been doing this for a long time now---we know what to do. We will finish this march victorious!

Comment by Richard Barnard on April 11, 2010 at 11:16am

What’s going to happen to HR 1835?

I support the legislation. For those that haven’t sent an e-mail to their legislatures I will post again the information sent to all members by Mr. Pickens.

We need HR 1835 passed. Please support the Natural Gas Act.

http://www.capwiz.com/pickensplan/issues/alert/?alertid=14341701&type=TA

Richard Barnard

Comment by John Wesley Nobles CA State Ldr on February 9, 2010 at 9:36pm

Please join us on The Green Revolution Show, tomorrow, 02/10/10, 11 am pacific, 2 pm eastern. Ed Laurent, Pickens Plan Member from Illinois, owner of Water & Oil Technologies, and Ann Diener of Raven Knight will be discussing Waste to Sustainability and a little about HR 1835. We will also give a special shout to our newest State Leader, Dea Riley of Kentucky. Call 347-637-3191, of go to The Green Revolution Show on your computer. What's your opinion?

Comment by allen bauman on August 28, 2009 at 4:55pm

If Carolyn McCarthy is your Congresswoman please add district group NY-04 to your list of groups.
Fall will be here soon and we know where the politicians will be.
We need to be organized and available in larger numbers to get our message across. Please join District Group NY-04 today!!!!!!
Allen Bauman
District Leader NY-04

Comment by allen bauman on August 28, 2009 at 4:49pm

If Carolyn McCarthy is your Congresswoman please add district group NY-04 to your list of groups.
Fall will be here soon and we know where the politicians will be.
We need to be organized and available in larger numbers to get our message across. Please join District Group NY-04 today!!!!!!
Allen Bauman
District Leader NY-04

Comment by allen bauman on August 25, 2009 at 9:52pm

PLEASE READ ENTIRE POST.

Below is a letter written to my Senators and Congresswoman. Within the letter is an article from the New York Times concerning underhanded Chinese tactics to become the world leader in solar panel manufacturing.

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AND SEND SIMILAR LETTERS TO YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES. I BELIEVE THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE AND MUST BE ADDRESSED BY OUR GOVERNMENT IMMEDIATELY. COPY AND PASTE IF YOU WANT TO THEN POST ANY RESPONSES YOU RECEIVE.

Allen Bauman
District Leader NY-04

The following article is from the New York Times. It is outrageous that China be allowed to use any back handed behavior necessary to capture the solar panel market without serious admonition from the American Government. As my Senator I insist that you light a fire under any and every agency involved in trade with China, contact the Chinese government and let them know in no uncertain terms that what they are doing is unacceptable and we will do what is necessary to protect this fledgling industry which I believe is critical to the future health and well being of the American economy. I am not a protectionist and I believe in global free trade, as long as there is a level playing field. I will also be sending this article to Senator Gillebrand and Congresswoman McCarthy imploring them to take action as well. It is my hope that you will meet with them and as many NYS Representatives as you can muster. This issue directly affects Long Island which has the potential to become a research, development and manufacturing center for solar technology. This also has the potential to affect upstate New York as well. Its a perfect lower wage, educated area which could benefit from new green industry. SUNY Binghamton is doing cutting edge research in this technology.


China Racing Ahead of U.S. in the Drive to Go Solar
Ryan Pyle for The New York Times

Suntech, China’s biggest solar panel maker, has reduced the price of panels sold in America to build market share.

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By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: August 24, 2009

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Ryan Pyle for The New York Times

Chinese companies like Suntech, above, plan to build assembly plants in the United States.
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WUXI, China — President Obama wants to make the United States “the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy,” but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy — especially in solar power, and even in the United States.

Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, said in an interview here that Suntech, to build market share, is selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping.

Backed by lavish government support, the Chinese are preparing to build plants to assemble their products in the United States to bypass protectionist legislation. As Japanese automakers did decades ago, Chinese solar companies are encouraging their United States executives to join industry trade groups to tamp down anti-Chinese sentiment before it takes root.

The Obama administration is determined to help the American industry. The energy and Treasury departments announced this month that they would give $2.3 billion in tax credits to clean energy equipment manufacturers. But even in the solar industry, many worry that Western companies may have fragile prospects when competing with Chinese companies that have cheap loans, electricity and labor, paying recent college graduates in engineering $7,000 a year.

“I don’t see Europe or the United States becoming major producers of solar products — they’ll be consumers,” said Thomas M. Zarrella, the chief executive of GT Solar International, a company in Merrimack, N.H., that sells specialized factory equipment to solar panel makers around the world.

Since March, Chinese governments at the national, provincial and even local level have been competing with one another to offer solar companies ever more generous subsidies, including free land, and cash for research and development. State-owned banks are flooding the industry with loans at considerably lower interest rates than available in Europe or the United States.

Suntech, based here in Wuxi, is on track this year to pass Q-Cells of Germany, to become the world’s second-largest supplier of photovoltaic cells, which would put it behind only First Solar in Tempe, Ariz.

Hot on Suntech’s heels is a growing list of Chinese corporations backed by entrepreneurs, local governments and even the Chinese military, all seeking to capitalize on an industry deemed crucial by China’s top leadership.

Dr. Shi pointed out that other governments, including in the United States, also assist clean energy industries, including with factory construction incentives.

China’s commitment to solar energy is unlikely to make a difference soon to global warming. China’s energy consumption is growing faster than any other country’s, though the United States consumes more today. Beijing’s aim is to generate 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020 — or less than half the capacity of coal-fired power plants that are built in China each year.

Solar energy remains far more expensive to generate than energy from coal, oil, natural gas or even wind. But in addition to heavy Chinese investment and low Chinese costs, the global economic downturn and a decline in European subsidies to buy panels have lowered prices.

The American economic stimulus plan requires any project receiving money to use steel and other construction materials, including solar panels, from countries that have signed the World Trade Organization’s agreement on free trade in government procurement. China has not.

In response to this, and to reduce shipping costs, Suntech plans to announce in the next month or two that it will build a solar panel assembly plant in the United States, said Steven Chan, its president for global sales and marketing.

“It’ll be to facilitate sales — ‘buy American’ and things like that,” Mr. Chan said, adding that the factory would have 75 to 150 workers and be located in Phoenix, or somewhere in Texas.

But 90 percent of the workers at the $30 million factory will be blue-collar laborers, welding together panels from solar wafers made in China, Dr. Shi said.

Yingli Solar, another large Chinese manufacturer, said on Thursday that it also had a “preliminary plan” to assemble panels in the United States.

Western rivals, meanwhile, are struggling. Q-Cells of Germany announced last week that it would lay off 500 of its 2,600 employees because of declining sales. It and two other German companies, Conergy and SolarWorld, are particularly indignant that German subsidies were the main source of demand for solar panels until recently.

“Politicians might ask whether this is still the right way to do this, German taxpayers paying for Asian products,” said Markus Wieser, a Q-Cells spokesman.

But organizing resistance to Chinese exports could be difficult, particularly as Chinese discounting makes green energy more affordable.

Even with Suntech acknowledging that it sells below the marginal cost of producing each additional solar panel — that is, the cost after administrative and development costs are subtracted — any antidumping case, in the United States, for example, would have to show that American companies were losing money as a result.

First Solar — the solar leader, in Tempe — using a different technology from many solar panel manufacturers, is actually profitable, while the new tax credits now becoming available may help other companies.

Even organizing a united American response to Chinese exports could be difficult. Suntech has encouraged executives at its United States operations to take the top posts at the two main American industry groups, partly to make sure that these groups do not rally opposition to imports, Dr. Shi said.

The efforts of Detroit automakers to win protection from Japanese competition in the 1980s were weakened by the presence of Honda in their main trade group; they expelled Honda in 1992.

Some analysts are less pessimistic about the prospects for solar panel manufacturers in the West. Joonki Song, a partner at Photon Consulting in Boston, said that while large Chinese solar panel manufacturers are gaining market share, smaller ones have been struggling.

Mr. Zarrella of GT Solar said that Western providers of factory equipment for solar panel manufacturers would remain competitive, and Dr. Shi said that German equipment providers “have made a lot of money, tons of money.”

The Chinese government is requiring that 80 percent of the equipment for China’s first municipal power plant to use solar energy, to be built in Dunhuang in northwestern China next year, be made in China.

Dr. Shi said his company would try to prevent similar rules in any future projects.

The reason is clear: almost 98 percent of Suntech’s production goes overseas.
Sign in to Recommend More Articles in Business » A version of this article appeared in print on August 25, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition.

Comment by Jacqueline on June 22, 2009 at 10:33am

AB 560 needs to pass:
Assembly Bill 560 would increase the cap on "net metering," which gives solar customers credit on their electric bill for surplus power they transfer to the utility. Currently, a utility is not obligated to sign net-metering contracts once solar power equals 2.5 percent of its peak electricity demand, a level PG&E is approaching. AB 560 would quadruple that cap, to 10 percent.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12620166?source%253Dmost_emailed.26978592730A3B8C7F471EACE0DA4EF2.html
Please spread the word and take action by calling your Representative - requesting the bill be passed. Thanks!

Comment by allen bauman on May 5, 2009 at 12:14pm

Hello Army

While surfing the web I found a website which you may find interesting and full of information on energy issues. It's called ....Energy Policy TV. I'm enclosing the link. Hope you find it interesting also:

http://video.energypolicytv.com/displaypage.php?channel=Congress

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