Obama Blocks Chinese Wind Farms In Oregon Over National Security 226
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the no-wind-for-you dept.
from the no-wind-for-you dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Reuters reports that President Barack Obama has invoked a little-used law to block a privately owned Chinese company from building wind turbines close to a Navy military site in Oregon due to national security concerns. 'There is credible evidence that leads me to believe' that Ralls Corp, Sany Group and the two Sany Group executives who own Ralls 'might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,' said Obama in issuing his decision. The military uses the Oregon naval facility to test unmanned drones and the EA-18G 'Growler.' The electronic warfare aircraft accompanies US fighter bombers on missions and protectively jams enemy radar, destroying them with missiles along the way. At the Oregon site, the planes fly as low as 60 m and at almost 480 km/h. The administration would not say what risks the wind farm purchases presented but the Treasury Department said the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, known as CFIUS, made its recommendation to Obama after receiving an analysis of the potential threats from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The last time a president used the law to block a transaction was in 1990, when George H.W. Bush voided the sale of an aerospace company, Mamco Manufacturing, to a Chinese agency."
China Conflation (Score:5, Informative)
Now I don't know if there is ulterior motives, but if it was an American company they would probably do the same thing. China is not the issue. The concern is that wind farms effectively create radar blind spots. There is ongoing research attempting to solve this issue. It has happened a lot with British military bases.
Seems plausible (Score:5, Informative)
If you're testing ECM you probably don't want someone affiliated with a foreign power putting up a bunch of tall towers in the vicinity.
Maybe it's bullshit, but it's a great excuse.
Re:It's official: the Cold War is back (Score:5, Informative)
USA, China and Russia are going to duke it out for who's top dog.
That is two big dogs and a chihuahua. Does anyone really thing Russia will ever be a "top dog" again? Russia's economy is smaller than the economy of Brazil or Italy [wikipedia.org]. Russia's population is declining, partly because of low birthrate and poor public health policies, but also because of emigration of the best and brightest.
If a third major power emerges in the 21st century, it is more likely to be India than Russia. India already has a bigger economy, and far more upside potential. They just need the will to reform their country, get rid of the corruption and subsidies, and open up their economy. If they did that, they could grow as fast as China.
Re:Obligated to point out another security concern (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/romneys-bain-capital-invested-in-companies-that-moved-jobs-overseas/2012/06/21/gJQAsD9ptV_story.html [washingtonpost.com]
Similar issues in Canada (Score:3, Informative)
There's been a lot of controversy over the attempted Chinese purchase of Nexen [theglobeandmail.com], a Canadian Petroleum company.
There are many concerns about Chinese companies' safety records, as well as the issues of foreign ownership of companies which exploit local natural resources (oddly, Canada seems to have less issue with US ownership of said companies).
Re:Obligated to point out another security concern (Score:4, Informative)
The difference is that Apple's primary focus is not shipping companies overseas. The company that Bain invested in specializes in offshoring.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/10/illinois-workers-bain-outsourcing [guardian.co.uk]
From the article:
So, yes, it seems to me that Romey prefers overseas jobs.
Re:Obligated to point out another security concern (Score:3, Informative)
And at the cost of many, many US jobs....and decimating industries in the Gulf south (LA, TX, etc)....and causing oil companies to move their rig deployment resources out of the Gulf to other countries....possibly never to come back.
It is our waters here....give us more a choice in allowing drilling. We're just fine down here....we've recovered....seafood industry has been tested (more than any other in history) and has been just fine for years now.....the oil spill was a bit of a burp...but we're over it....but Obama is killing jobs and money coming in here in this area by not allowing new oil leases....
Re:Obligated to point out another security concern (Score:4, Informative)
As such, the Social Security trust fund mainly buys and holds treasury bonds rather than a giant pile of cash. But that investment is perfectly safe (again, people invest in US Treasury bonds for exactly that reason; the US always pays its debts). It also allows that money to be put to use in the mean time, rather than be essentially taken out of the economy and hoarded in an account somewhere (aren't free-market fans always touting the power of investment? I thought that's why we have to keep capital gains taxes so low!). I know it's weird to think of an entity lending money to itself, but it is a fairly normal practice.