Let the trade wars begin. Thanks Trump.

http://thehill.com/...-solar-panel-imports

Looks like washing machines also get 20% tariff.

Have you seen what a Chinese surface (strip in enviro terms) mine looks like?

Trust me, there’s no reclamation bond. Or reseeding. Or groundwater monitoring. Or prioritizing threatened species.

Any environmental benefit derived from Chinese panels is totally negated by the mining process of the raw materials.

There ain’t no MSHA in China.

Have you seen what a Chinese surface (strip in enviro terms) mine looks like?

Trust me, there’s no reclamation bond. Or reseeding. Or groundwater monitoring. Or prioritizing threatened species.

Any environmental benefit derived from Chinese panels is totally negated by the mining process of the raw materials.

There ain’t no MSHA in China.

Let the trade wars begin. Thanks Trump.

http://thehill.com/...-solar-panel-imports

Looks like washing machines also get 20% tariff.

Any environmental benefit derived from Chinese panels is totally negated by the mining process of the raw materials.

What LCA data to you have to back up your statements? Which raw materials mining are you referring too - since different photovoltaic panels use different raw materials?

Why do I get the feeling the free market capitalists in the Republican ranks of Congress won't raise a stink? The Dems should be jumping for joy - more taxes! The bizarro world we are living in continues to turn...

Good LCA data from China? lolz.

That makes about as much sense as trying to enforce patent law in China.

Have you ever been to a mine? Either in the US or China. Active or 'reclaimed'? I have. Tons (pun intended!) of them. There's quite a difference...the difference in which material is being mined doesn't matter.

I mean seriously, I thought 'enforcing' environmental and trade standards around the world was a libby thing. I guess if DJT does it, it must be evil.

This tariff is not a regulation that requires U.S. manufacturers to source locally mined raw materials. It's just a tariff on the finished product (from what I can tell).

China is still a dominant producer of copper, silver, silicon and almost all rare earth metals. And I don't see how this affects those markets. If I'm making photovoltaics cell in the U.S. I'm still buying Chinese indium or whatever, and the ugly Chinese strip mine that employs 6 year-olds probably looks every bit as ugly.

If you want to start enforcing environmental or labor practices, then probably the way to do that is participating in global bodies that govern environmental or labor practices. But the U.S. has already said it wants to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership - one of those bodies - so that's one less lever to use. And "the base" probably doesn't like participating in global bodies because of the appearance that any participation in global bodies cedes national sovereignty to foreign powers.

So tariffs. Where we get all the higher prices for U.S. consumers, but debatable benefit in other ways.

Good LCA data from China? lolz.

That makes about as much sense as trying to enforce patent law in China.

Have you ever been to a mine? Either in the US or China. Active or 'reclaimed'? I have. Tons (pun intended!) of them. There's quite a difference...the difference in which material is being mined doesn't matter.

I mean seriously, I thought 'enforcing' environmental and trade standards around the world was a libby thing. I guess if DJT does it, it must be evil.

Why do I get the feeling the free market capitalists in the Republican ranks of Congress won't raise a stink? The Dems should be jumping for joy - more taxes! The bizarro world we are living in continues to turn...

Is this part of the effort to bring coal jobs back? For years people have been complaining that we are subsidizing the new technology too much. Now some of those same people are eager to put tariffs on the new technology to in effect subsidize coal.

It's the drill, drill, drill people that are killing coal. Coal can't compete with cheap natural gas.

So you don't have data to back up your statements. Even if the mining process is different, it doesn't mean chinese solar panels couldn't greatly contribute in a positive way for the planet.

As a scientist and R&D manager in aerospace composites who has worked on LCA in the past, I look forward to your guidance as you teach me! :-)

If that’s your background and you don’t understand the difference of raw materials sourced in China vs the US and the difference of LCA data between the two countries...then I suggest you look for a new field or thank your father/mother for your job :)