SolarCity backed Chinese Manufacturers flooding of Solar Panels on the U.S. Market

Months before the U.S. government slapped Chinese manufacturers with hefty tariffs on solar panels that were flooding the American market, at least one American stood – or rather sat – with the Chinese.

SolarCity founder Elon Musk, left, and Obama

John Stanton, vice president of policy and markets with California-based SolarCity, defended Chinese manufacturers at a Jan. 22 U.S. International Trade Commission hearing to determine how the feds would respond to allegations that the Chinese government-backed companies had destroyed more than 2,000 U.S. jobs.

As one of the nation’s largest solar contractors and recipient of nearly $1 billion in tax subsidies and grants, SolarCity has imported millions of panels from Chinese companies during the past eight years in its quest for market dominance. The company’s unique leasing program leaves SolarCity as the owners of its customers’ rooftop systems, and that means SolarCity reaps the tax incentives.

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Many American companies haven’t been able to compete with counterparts that are underwritten and, in some cases, owned by the Chinese government.

One recent victim, Sharp Corp. in Memphis, laid off 311 workers in March and ceased making solar panels altogether, according to media reports and Timothy Brightbill, SolarWorld’s attorney arguing the case. At least 28 companies have folded, according to the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing.

“It’s not a problem for us to compete with the Chinese, but we shouldn’t have to compete with the Chinese government,” Ben Santarris, strategic affairs director for SolarWorld, told Watchdog. SolarWorld filed the USITC case and was the lone American panel manufacturer at the hearing.

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