Full Title: Green Mercantilism: Threat to the Clean Energy Economy
Author(s): Matthew Stepp and Robert D. Atkinson
Publisher(s): The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)
Publication Date: June 1, 2012
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
In May 2012, the U.S. Department of Commerce preliminarily ruled in favor of a coalition of U.S. solar panel manufacturers’ petition against China for illegally exporting solar panels at below market rates. A coalition of U.S. wind turbine manufacturers filed a petition asking the Administration to take action against similar Chinese and Vietnamese wind subsidy policies. Both cases are just the latest complaints against competitor nations that use green mercantilist policies to gain unfair competitive advantage in the global clean energy industry. Some argue that America should not only turn a blind eye to such policies, but even embrace them because they lower the price of clean energy imports for the United States, helping both American consumers and the fight against climate change. But the long-term harm of these policies greatly outweighs the short-term benefits. Not only do green mercantilist policies hurt clean energy producers in the United States, they also limit the incentive to invest in innovative, next-generation clean energy technologies, which hurts, not helps, the global community’s ability to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.