Solar Panel Maker Moves Work to China

[handmade34]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/business/energy-environment/15solar.html?src=me&ref=general

"Aided by at least $43 million in assistance from the government of Massachusetts and an innovative solar energy technology, Evergreen Solar emerged in the last three years as the third-largest maker of solar panels in the United States...now the company is closing its main American factory, laying off the 800 workers by the end of March and shifting production to a joint venture with a Chinese company in central China..."


...will it ever end... then need for more (and more and more and more) money???

[a kennedy]

1. this is just not right......

how can they take 43 million in assistance and MOVE TO F*%@&$ CHINA???? :mad: :mad: :mad: there should be some law against that. :cry: :cry: :cry:

[handmade34]

7. dubious laws

""The Obama administration has been investigating whether China has violated the free trade rules of the World Trade Organization with its extensive subsidies to the manufacturers of solar panels and other clean energy products""

[otohara]

2. How UnPatriotic of Them

and my guess, it will never end.

[OneGrassRoot]

3. Wow. This is very, very depressing. :( n/t

[handmade34]

8. my feeling too

there was a sinking in my stomach when I read this... not that we don't know it has happened and is still happening, but...

[annabanana]

4. Doesn't all this Government assistance come with any CONDITIONS??

Goddam it! That's MY money we spent on that place!

[handmade34]

12. and...

republicans complain because we spend taxpayers money on providing health care and giving relief to poor people here - that put it back into the system!! but they do not complain about corporations taking money overseas??

[rucky]

5. Assholes.

Grant money is intended to create jobs here. It's our money and they took it and shipped it away.

[handmade34]

10. only been there for 3 years!!

"Even though Evergreen opened its Devens plant, with all new equipment, only in 2008, it began talks with Chinese companies in early 2009. In September 2010, the company opened its factory in Wuhan, China, and will now rely on that operation"

[MattBaggins]

35. So they take that plant and give it to an American company

that agrees to stay here in America. You tell the company that's leaving that their products will not be welcomed in America.

[neverforget]

6. Corporations have no allegiance to any country but only to their shareholders

and the bottom line. Greed is their patriotism.

[handmade34]

16. I have been thinking

a lot lately about how money and lust for money has come to control almost EVERYTHING that is and is done in this country... again not a new notion but the reality needs to front and center when we consider these things...

not personal well-being
not personal health
not public health
not environmental well-being
not safety
not healthy food
not emotional health
not civility
not reason
not rational behavior
etc...

but money (as a means to gain power and escape from reality)

[Whisp]

18. thats right, borders are only for illegal immigrants

corps can traipse around wherever.

ugh

[IDemo]

9. "joint venture" - a phrase that will live in infamy

Along with "human resources" and "jobless recovery".

We were recently advised by the VP that a joint venture had been agreed upon and that "some" of our products would be tested elsewhere. But not to worry....

[OregonBlue]

11. State of Massachusetts should go after their $43 million.

[handmade34]

19. this

"The company also received about $22 million in tax credits, and it will discuss those with Massachusetts, he said"

[Hoopla Phil]

13. Who didn't see this coming? n/t

[handmade34]

17. well

we know and have known... what is wrong ith us that we don't act?

[aquart]

14. And every executive involved needs to do jail time.

We really need to recognize this as a criminal act. FRAUD, for one. They took money meant to develop an industry in Massachusetts. Are they paying every penny back?

[handmade34]

20. they

maintain that U.S. banks would lend more money at good rate

"...Factory labor is cheap in China, where monthly wages average less than $300. That compares to a statewide average of more than $5,400 a month for Massachusetts factory workers. But labor is a tiny share of the cost of running a high-tech solar panel factory, Mr. El-Hillow said. China’s real advantage lies in the ability of solar panel companies to form partnerships with local governments and then obtain loans at very low interest rates from state-owned banks.

Evergreen, with help from its partners — the Wuhan municipal government and the Hubei provincial government — borrowed two-thirds of the cost of its Wuhan factory from two Chinese banks, at an interest rate that under certain conditions could go as low as 4.8 percent, Mr. El-Hillow said in August. Best of all, no principal payments or interest payments will be due until the end of the loan in 2015...."

[howaboutme]

15. They need to end all corporate pork and economic assistance

as this scam has been going on for decades with economic development and tax credits for R&D, while business takes their payoff money and runs to China. The free trade pacts are a license to steal from Americans, and Obama and his Korean deal and NAFTA are examples. The only deal on trade should be we'll let you import $1 billion in product to the USA but you'll need to reciprocate.

Howard Dean said there were 3 Tea Parties. One was racist, one was Armey's pro-corporate, while the last but largest segment by far, are populists and opposed to off shoring of jobs, they could support taxing the rich, want to balance the budget, and support putting the USA first, and ending our neocon motivated wars, imperialism, special relationships and foreign aid.

It is the last segment that concerned the powers that be (PTB) because it could change the political dynamics from one where the USA is controlled by and for the benefit of the rich to a potential of merging of populist interests between Ds, Rs and Is. The corporate media worked hard to portray all the Tea Party as racists. The elite despise populists.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/monitor_breakfast/2011/0105/Howard-Dean-tea-party-is-last-gasp-of-generation-that-fears-diversity

[somone]

21. Sure smells like a bait-and-switch

So typical of start-ups that are run by smooth-talking well-connected assholes.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

22. The state of Massachusetts ought to therefore demand its 43 million back

There should be that restriction on any gov't money given to corprats. Move jobs overseas - pay it back!

[handmade34]

24. see #19

[Urban Prairie]

23. So where are all of the Rethugs that condemn librul socialism, but embrace

"free" trade and good 'ol Murcan capitalism?

Why aren't they all up in arms over outsourcing and offshoring US jobs , as well as continuing US trade with those godless Chinese commie socialists?

Complete hypocrites, the lot of them.

But thats okay, we will just continue to rely on electronic vapor while becoming a total "services-based" economy.

That is, only those services that are nailed down here by pure physical necessity.


Wouldn't surprise me at all, if someday soon, people that are accused of committing crimes, and who cannot afford a lawyer will be provided with one who is based in India, and represents them in court via an LCD screen and a webcam.

[Vinca]

25. So let's hear it for the green economy.

It's astonishing U.S. taxpayers end up subsidizing the outsourcing of their own jobs. Time to email thoughts on outsourcing to Evergreen.

[socialist_n_TN]

26. This is where we should have a government..........

that would KEEP this plant open working through the union as a worker's co-op and compete DIRECTLY with the capitalists.

[handmade34]

29. lack of gov't funding

is one reason given... U.S. banks not lending at reasonable rate another...

alternative energy is much too important to let it slip away overseas

[Rage for Order]

27. Makes sense. There are essentially zero environmental regulations in China

And manufacturing solar panels is a dirty business. It's much more cost effective when you can just bury all the nasty by-products in the ground with no safeguards.

[Odin2005]

28. Fucking Capitalist asshole!

[AsahinaKimi]

30. Green Jobs were a promise of the Obama Administration..

And yet, one of the major Green Jobs moves to China. Sign of the times. Maybe companies like this should be heavily taxed on their profits. That company could put many Americans to work, but instead its helping China's economy.

How the hell can the USA get people back to work..I guess some corporations don't give a damn, so long as they make a profit.

[sarcasmo]

31. The corporations in this country only know one thing, GREED. When they can move a factory

to China and employ workers at 18cents an hour instead of let's say 10 dollars an hour they do it in a heartbeat. There is no remorse by the corporation as it has no soul. The only thing the corporation is worried about is the bottom line, not who they screw over. They should be made to pay back ever single federal dollar and state dollar they were given.

[B Calm]

32. Now the cons in Congress will probably give them another 20 or 40 million

to help them in their move. . .

[MattBaggins]

33. Time to play hard ball

You can go but you pay back the money and/or you don't get to sell your products here anymore.

Any Government contracts they might have should be null and void.

[dems_rightnow]

34. They are hemorrhaging money.

They've never turned a profit, and lose gargantuan money every year. The solar market in the US is..... not very robust.

The "need for more (and more and more and more) money" was just a hysterical comment with no basis in fact. They're fighting for survival.

[thaddeus_flowe]

36. i wonder if i can get massachusetts to pay me $43 mil to move to china

[Thunderstruck]

37. A raw, maddening, saddening example of what is happening to us as a country.

What this tells us is that in order to compete with labor elsewhere and keep manufacturers here in the U.S. we must be willing to work for $300 per month.

This particular example makes me want to scream in frustration.