SEIA under pressure for its position in the U.S. ITC hearings
The following is a statement and open letter from Petersen-Dean to the Solar Energy Industries Association:
PetersenDean, a privately-held roofing and solar company, announced today that is calling for the president and full board of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) to resign immediately because of its recent position in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) hearings regarding the imposition of anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties against China and Taiwan. Company executives are also asking for an ethics investigation under the SEIA by-laws, including Article 10.
According to the letter: "In spite of these companies having been found guilty of illegal and unfair widespread underselling and dumping of Chinese solar panels and their components in the U.S. market (three times by the Commission in some cases), SEIA supported them. SEIA is an American solar trade organization that should not be representing Chinese and Taiwanese interests in these matters."
According to PetersenDean Roofing & Solar President Erin Clark, the trade association's support for China and Taiwan in these matters is a clear conflict with its own stated purpose to keep America competitive.
"SEIA has become nothing more than a tool used by Chinese companies to try and bankrupt and destroy American solar manufacturing. Thanks to some of these actions, thousands of American workers have lost their jobs in the past three years due to the closure of solar manufacturing plants in America. All of this at a time when our domestic economy and employment are struggling to recover from the devastating recession," said Clark.
Petersen Dean has a long-standing initiative to buy American made products.
"We made a decision at PetersenDean to only source our products from North America. It's costing us a little more money to buy these panels, but we are supporting the American economy, we are supporting the American worker and we're reinvesting those dollars back in America," said Jim Petersen, Founder of PetersenDean. "It's that simple. I want to make sure that our products stand the test of time and that our customers are happy with it and that's why we choose to go American. That's what Solar4America is all about. It's about lowering our electric bills, but it's also about American jobs, American panels and reinvesting in America. It's something we deeply care about and it's why we felt compelled to ask for these resignations."
The full letter is included with this news release and will be delivered to SEIA on Tuesday, December 16, 2014. The letter calls for the immediate resignation of Rhone Resch the president and CEO of SEIA, the entire Executive Committee of SEIA and ALL board members whose parent companies are in China.