Feds ignore rules and use stimulus cash to buy Chinese solar panels

OCD_OCD: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/17/lambasted-chinese-solar-panels-placed-on-governmen/

Government officials blame unfair competition from China for the collapse of solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, but such concerns didn’t stop the federal government from breaking stimulus program rules to use Chinese solar panels atop a federal building housing the offices of a senator, congressman and several agencies.

OCD_OCD:
Even the contractor questioned whether Chinese-made panels could be used under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the stimulus program that mandated use of U.S.-made products. His query in early 2010 was dismissed and the General Services Administration moved forward with using the Chinese panels on the Sen. Paul Simon Federal Building in Carbondale, Ill., records show.

Questions about the panels, which were assembled overseas, were raised in a four-page advisory memo sent by the inspector general to the GSA in the summer of 2011, but the findings take on added significance as government officials increasingly place blame on Chinese subsidies for troubles in the U.S. solar market.

Since last summer, Solyndra LLC and another solar company, Abound Solar, have filed for bankruptcy despite receiving generous federal loan guarantees. After both bankruptcies, government officials were quick to place blame on subsidies from China that allowed foreign solar panel manufactures to sell their products below cost, squeezing U.S. solar companies.
Meanwhile, the contractor on the Illinois building project, J.R. Conkey & Associates, initially questioned GSA officials on whether solar panels assembled in China could be used under the stimulus program, but a procurement officer told the company to proceed, according to records.

“We did what we were told to do by the federal government,” Jim Conkey, the company’s president, said Monday.

According to the inspector general’s memo, Conkey officials asked the GSA contracting official “whether non-ARRA [Recovery Act] compliant solar panels could be used” on Feb. 16, 2010, before the installation of the panels.

“The contracting officer directed Conkey to ‘proceed with the panels specified in the schedule contract since they have already been determined as satisfying all applicable contract clauses including the ARRA Buy American Act requirement,’ ” the memo stated.

The inspector general’s memo said the overall roof work was performed under a $1.8 million task order awarded to J.R. Conkey & Associates, though Mr. Conkey said a portion of the project involving stimulus funding for the panels at issue involved about $200,000.
Dan Cruz, a GSA spokesman, said an agency review found no other instances of GSA projects using solar panels made outside of the U.S.

In a written response to the inspector general last year, officials also disagreed with several aspects of the review. The Federal Acquisition Service, an arm of the GSA, said the contract to J.R. Conkey was for a “complex roof mounted electrical grid system” and that the panel in question — the SP205 — was “one component of this overall system.”
“Here, the panels themselves are not a contract item” the service’s response stated. “Rather, they are an important part of a solar system, but are integrated along with an inverter, tubes and other components into a system.”

And for purchases of such systems, the Trade Agreements Act, not the Buy America Act, applies, according to Federal Acquisition Service officials, who added that only the Bureau of Customs, now a part of the Department of Homeland Security, could make a determination of [Trade Agreements Act] compliance.

Still, the inspector general’s memo stated that the panels violated the provisions of the stimulus program, according to the memo.

“The photovoltaic panels installed were assembled in and shipped from China,” the memo stated. “Under the ARRA, the Chinese panels cannot be purchased with ARRA funds.”

Barbara the Jew:

OCD_OCD: The taxpayers give stimulus money to a solar panel company (Solyndra) and then loses it because Solyndra goes bankrupt due to competition by the Chinese. Personally, I'm not so sure it was only competition by the Chinese. It sounds like the whole Solyndra business plan sucked from the beginning, but we invested in it anyway.

And then to add insult to injury, the taxpayers get to spend more stimulus money which was SUPPOSED to be guaranteed to stimulate OUR economy, not the Chinese economy.

Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?

Barbara the Jew: its just a very frustrating issue!

davidk14: .

Stupid bastards.

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OCD_OCD: Doesn't it make you crazy just thinking about it?

chronology: OCD. American Manufacturers have already had Tariffs placed on Chines Solar panel manufacturers to try and keep 'Free Trade, Fair Trade'. However, most of the jobs (50pc) in the Solar Panel Industry are in Installation, not Manufacturing (25pc). The Tariffs placed on Chinese Parnell's have driven up the price of Solar Panels putting more American Jobs at risk as Americans reconsider fitting pricier alternative energy panel's. A answer would be to subsidise American Solar Manufacturing companies and keep panel's economical enough to temp American Home owners to invest in them. A ban on Chinese Solar Panel's will place thousands of American Jobs, and dozens of American Installation companies at risk.

OCD_OCD: i didnt say to ban them. I said not to add insult to injury and illegally buy Chinese solar panels with stimulus money earmarked to be spent in the US to benefit the US.

davidk14: .

Just give me the balance of the stimulus money...I will spend the hell out of it 24/7 until it's all gone.

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dave3974: we need to review a lot of the trade with china , workers living in dormitorys , 6 / 7 days weeks, basic wages , and no rights ; is not fair competition

OCD_OCD: I know what you mean, Dave. And yet they have the audacity to come down against other countries for acts of inhumanity? Puh-leeze. :shakinghead:

OCD_OCD: Dangit.