EU Investigating Chinese Wind Turbine Subsidies

 

The EU is upset that Chinese firms are supplying the equipment necessary for the transition to Net Zero at prices lower than their own manufacturers, presumably through state subsidies. Once again we're forced to admit that the battle against hydrocarbon fueled climate change is actually a financial boondoggle. 

If climate change were the existential threat it's made out to be the Germans would be overjoyed that the Chinese were making it cheaper for the Germans to do their share to save the world. But no. The conversion from gas and oil to wind and solar is all about the money. 

The development and production of new wind turbines and solar panels is a relatively new business in terms of government subsidies. Companies all over the world are being formed to take advantage of the problem and existing companies are adding divisions devoted to alternative forms of energy. This would seem to mean that all things considered employment in the EU shouldn't be affected by imports of the equipment since few are being employed to make it.   EU companies hoping to jump on the new energy bandwagon are in a different situation. They need to sell their products at a significantly higher price to assure their existence and the general population must accept paying the bill. The cost per ton of CO2 elimination is apparently of no importance. Global warming turns out to also be a publicly financed jobs project, perhaps to put thousands of immigrants to work. 

Another aspect of the situation is the supposed contrast between the authoritarian East and the democratic West. During the Cold War the big argument about the Soviets was that their 5 Year Plans couldn't succeed because central planning ignored market realities and was divorced from prices. The Russian experience thus indicates a similar fate for other authoritarians, especially the Chinese, who have managed to lift the income and well-being of their population over a distance and time unrivaled in world history. The governments of the West are less worried about the economic success of the Chinese than the possibility that they might acquire more credibility among the "non-aligned" nations.

Of course the West's fixation on Net Zero generally uses the year 2050 as a target date. There could hardly be a more striking example of central planning.

In fact, the trillions of imaginary Euros and renmimbi required to reach the goals of the climate anxious will bankrupt the EU no matter who supplies the wind turbines and solar panels.